Asia-Pacific markets mostly fell Monday after Wall Street logged its worst session of the year last Friday as U.S. economic data pointed to a slowing economy and persistent inflation. Mainland China’s CSI300 index fell 0.22% to close at 3,969.72. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index ended the day 0.58% lower at 23,341.61, after notching a nearly three-year high in its previous session.
Indian stocks also remained in negative territory, with the NSE Nifty 50 down 1.08%, while the BSE Sensex index lost 1.03% as of 1.30 p.m. local time. South Korea’s KOSPI ended the day 0.35% lower at 2,645.27, while the small-cap Kosdaq closed down 0.17% at 773.33. In contrast, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 ended the day 0.14% higher at 8,308.20, breaking its five-session losing streak.
Japanese markets were closed for a public holiday. Singapore’s inflation climbed by its lowest rate since February 2021, increasing 1.2% year on year in January, down from a revised 1.5% in December. Core inflation in the country, which strips out prices of private transport and accommodation, rose by 0.8% year on year, down from December’s 1.8% rise.
This is the first key piece of economic data since Singapore unveiled its 2025 budget on Feb.
Asia-Pacific markets under pressure
18, which promised to combat cost of living pressures.
Shares in agri-business company Olam Group surged as much as 8.85% after it announced on Monday that it will sell its remaining 64.57% stake in Olam Agri to Saudi Agriculture & Livestock Investment (Salic). The company will first sell its 44.58% stake (1.51 billion shares) to the state-owned Saudi investment firm for about $1.78 billion. Upon completion, Salic will have a controlling stake of 80.01% in Olam Agri.
The Olam Group will have the option of selling its remaining 19.99% stake in Olam Agri to Salic at the end of three years. Australia’s asset management firm Perpetual saw its shares slide 3.62% Monday as it terminated talks with U.S. private equity firm KKR on the sale of its wealth management arm and corporate trust units, worth 2.2 billion Australian dollars ($1.4 billion). Perpetual said it would pursue the sale of its wealth management business separately.
The deal fell through after an independent expert noted that it was “not in the best interests of shareholders.” KKR has asserted that a “break fee is payable and has reserved its rights to seek further damages.” However, Perpetual wrote that it “rejects KKR’s contentions.”
Trading in 30-day fed funds futures contracts Friday now suggests roughly 55% odds that the Federal Reserve will cut rates two to three times by the end of the year, to a range of 3.50% to 3.75% from 4.25% to 4.50% today. The odds on Thursday stood at about 44.4%. Even by the time of the Fed’s October policy meeting, market odds now stand at roughly 50-50 that the central bank will cut back on lending rates by one half to three quarters of a percentage point, whereas on Thursday, futures trading pointed to only about a 38% chance.
