Majority of Asian equities traded downwards on Thursday’s close and investors are turning their attention on the highly anticipated meeting between President of China Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump.
In particular, Japanese markets were pulled down by a much stronger yen. The Topix slid by 1.63 percent, or 24.48 points at 1,480.18 and the Nikkei 225 was 1.40 percent lower, or 264.21 points to settled at 18,597.03.
President Trump has declared that North Korea will be a main focus after its newest ballistic test missile launch. According to DBS in a note, trade will also be the center of attention whilst the two-day summit in Florida even though it is impossible that major progress will be made.
In other indices, South Korean benchmark Kospi was down by 0.37 percent or 8.10 points at 2,152.75, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dropped by 0.39 percent and the Aussie ASX 200 settled 0.34 percent lower or 19.897 points.
However Chinese markets didn’t go with the flow, the Shenzhen Composite was 0.297 higher or 6 points at 2,029.21 and the Shanghai Composite rose by 0.35 percent or 11.29 points to settle at 3,281.60. On the Red Dragon’s economic news, its service sector was stagnant in six months last March. The Caixin Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) only declined at 52.2 than the predicted 53.2.
Most of Japanese and Korean automakers also plunged behind the Asian trade. In Japan, Toyota shares dropped by 1.68 percent at yen’s 5,810 and Honda loss 1.93 percent on their shares due to 3,148 yen. In Korea, Hyundai Motors was down by 1 percent at 148,000 won and Kia Motors settled lower by 0.28 percent at 35,850 won.