Aug 31 ,2026
Synopsis:
Asia equities ended mixed Monday. Japan's Nikkei 225 and Taiwan's Taiex both fell, the Hang Seng was also down but closed well off its lows. Small losses for Australia; India lower on the rise in oil prices. Small gains for the Kospi, Topix, Shanghai Composite and Singapore. The rest of Southeast Asia quiet as several markets took a holiday. US futures mixed, Europe opened with some losses. US dollar off Friday's high, yen stronger and the won strengthened further to a more than one-year high. Bond yields lower. Crude prices sharply higher with Brent back above $90/bl. Precious metals lower, base metals finding a base.
Asia markets ended mixed Monday with many off their lows or posting small gains after a poor start. Heated military exchanges in the Gulf and a hawkish tone from Fed chair Warsh post the Asia close Friday weighed first thing but most regained their footing mid-morning. Brent and WTI crude futures spiked first thing but have also eased slightly, gold was also lower, and regional currencies remained near their lows post Warsh's speech. For August, many markets reversed at least some of July's steep losses but gains were led by sectors other than technology while the won's recovery gave the Kospi an outsized boost in US dollar terms; by the close on Friday, the MSCI Asia Pac ex Japan index was around 2.7% higher with outperformance in South Korea, Taiwan, mainland China and Australia; and underperformance in Hong Kong, much of Southeast Asia and India.
In regional developments Monday, JGB yields rose at the short end post Fed Chair's hawkish tilt which sent markets to price in a near 60% chance of a US rate hike in September. The yen strengthened just as US Treasury Secretary Bessent said he expects Governor Ueda to 'do the right thing' on monetary policy in September. Japan's July industrial production inched higher while retail sales beat forecasts. South Korea industrial production for July steadied but retail sales eased slightly; Seoul also announced a cabinet reshuffle over the weekend including the appointment of a new finance minister. China August official manufacturing PMI contracted again although output and new orders expanded slightly.
Itochu (8001.JP) is to launch a tender offer to take Dentsu Soken (4812.JP) private in a deal worth roughly ¥215B ($1.3B) with Dentsu set to collaborate to manage the business after the acquisition is complete. Japan's FSA is to carry out on-site inspections of Sony Financial Group's (8729.JP) life insurance unit over governance issues. Honda Motor (7267.JP) and Nissan Motor (7201.JP) have reached deal on the joint development of onboard technology after their merger failure. CXMT (688825.CH) is to supply memory chips for Xiaomi's (1810.HK) new folding phone; to sue Pentagon over 'military company' status. SK Hynix (000660.KS) is considering outsourcing some production of HBM4E chips to an Intel Foundry and cold be looking at a joint venture to make memory chips in Japan. Unimicron (3037.TT) stock finished lower after news broke late Friday ministry of justice investigators had visited its offices over allegations against agriculture, industry and commerce.
Digest:
Notable Gainers:
+7.0% 2810.JP (House Foods Group): reportedly looking at selling operator of curry chain restaurant operator Ichibanya; company confirms considering sale
+7.0% 1070.HK (TCL Electronics Holdings): reports H1 adjusted net income HK$1.64B, +54% vs year-ago HK$1.06B
+7.0% 1658.HK (Postal Savings Bank of China): reports H1 net income attributable CNY51.50B, +5% vs year-ago CNY49.23B
+4.7% 7988.JP (Nifco Inc): to buy back up to 8.3M shares in off-auction purchases from 1-18 Sep
+2.2% 6758.JP (Sony): SON Financial to sell 12.0M shares in GungHo Online to Sony Music at ¥2,385/share
Notable Decliners:
-15.9% 817.HK (China Jinmao Holdings Group): China announces property sector policy package, extending mortgage max term to 40 years
-12.6% 9896.HK (MINISO Group Holding): reports Q2 adjusted EPADS CNY1.76 vs FactSet CNY1.87
-10.0% 3037.TT (Unimicron Technology): Taiwan's Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau visits Unimicron to investigate alleged offenses against agriculture, industry, and commerce
-8.9% 2186.HK (Luye Pharma Group): reports H1 revenue CNY3.00B, (6%) vs year-ago CNY3.18B
-5.6% 002352.CH (S.F. Holding): reports H1 net income attributable CNY5.50B, (4%) vs year-ago CNY5.74B
-5.0% 753.HK (Air China): reports H1 CAS net income attributable (CNY2.29B) vs guidance (CNY2.10-2.60B) and year-ago (CNY1.81B)
-4.5% 8729.JP (Sony Financial Group): Japan's FSA reportedly to carry out on-site inspection of Sony Life
Data:
Economic:
China
August official manufacturing PMI 49.8 vs consensus 49.5 and 49.2 in prior month
Non-manufacturing PMI 49.0 vs consensus 49.7 and 49.0 in prior month
Composite PMI 49.5 vs 49.3 in prior month
Japan July
Industrial production +0.1% m/m vs consensus (0.6%) and +1.9% in prior month
METI survey projections +6.4% in Aug, (4.2%) in Sep
Retail sales +4.0% y/y vs consensus +3.3% and revised +0.6% in prior month
Retail sales +2.4% m/m vs consensus +1.6% and revised (3.9%) in prior month
Australia
Q2 business inventories (0.2%) vs consensus +0.5% and +0.5% in Q1
Q2 company profits +1.8% vs consensus +2.0% and revised (1.5%) in Q1
July private sector credit +0.6% m/m vs consensus +0.7% and +0.8% in June
New Zealand
August ANZ Business Confidence +53.7 vs +56.1 in July
South Korea
July industrial production +0.2% m/m vs FactSet consensus +0.7% and revised +6.7% in prior month
Industrial production +3.6% y/y vs FactSet consensus +4.8% and revised +6.0% in prior month
Markets:
Nikkei: (93.63) or (0.14%) to 66311.93
Hang Seng: (17.80) or (0.07%) to 25566.99
Shanghai Composite: 34.12 or +0.86% to 3986.30
Shenzhen Composite: 15.38 or +0.60% to 2565.55
ASX200: (16.30) or (0.18%) to 9076.00
KOSPI: 31.14 or +0.46% to 6820.02
SENSEX: (272.04) or (0.35%) to 76992.47
Currencies:
$-¥: (0.53) or (0.33%) to 159.5400
$-KRW: (9.22) or (0.67%) to 1367.6000
A$-$: (0.00) or (0.06%) to 0.7158
$-INR: (0.32) or (0.34%) to 95.1541
$-CNY: (0.01) or (0.10%) to 6.7204
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