Stocks in the Asian region were seen extending losses on Thursday after a downbeat manufacturing report from the US and Europe.
US equities tumbled overnight after the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) manufacturing index for the US came in at a low 56.6 in September, compared to the previous reading of 59.0 seen in August. The Markit Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) fell to 57.5 in September from August reading of 57.9.
The Chinese markets remained closed for the celebration of National Day, while the Japanese Nikkei 225 index declined 1.47% to 15,845.51 points, while Tokyo’s Topix index slumped 1.82% lower to trade at 1,294.28 points.
The Japanese yen was seen heading for a second day of advanced, trading around 109.00 yen against the US dollar on Thursday, from 109.60 yen on Wednesday as the US dollar weakened overnight. In Japan, Honda Motor and Panasonic Corp were down by at least 3.7% each. Real estate stocks also saw losses, with Mitsubishi Estate down by 2.6% and Sumitomo Reality & Development lost 2.5%.
The South Korean Kospi index edged 0.60% to 1,979.58 points at the time of writing.
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In Sydney, the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index slid 0.37% to trade at 5,314.40 points, dragging financial and mining stocks lower.
Mining giants BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto slumped by 1.4% and 0.7% respectively during the early trading hours in Sydney, while the iron-ore miner BC Iron went down 3.3%. While the financial stocks saw the most losses with National Australia Bank lost 0.6%, Commonwealth Bank of Australia and ANZ each slid 0.3% lower and Westpac remained flat.
European stocks opened lower on Thursday as the market focus on the upcoming European Central Bank (ECB) meeting and press conference scheduled to begin later in the day.
The German DAX lost 0.28% to trade at 9,366.50, while the European Euro Stoxx 50 fell by 0.42% to 3,173.50. In France, the benchmark CAC 40 edged 0.34% to 4,348.30 and UK’s FTSE 100 futures was down 0.27% to 6,518.00.
The European Central bank is expected to maintain its record low interest rates at its Thursday meeting and also expected to announce further details of its plan to purchases asset-backed securities after unveiling stimulus measures to boost credit lending.
In other news, the European manufacturing data came in weaker than expected, with the euro-block’s PMI easing to 50.3 points in September, compared to August’s final reading of 50.7 and flash reading of 50.5, a release from Markit Economics showed.
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