Asia-Pacific markets track Wall Street slide on tech sell-off; Japan headline inflation holds steady

Japan's headline inflation was unchanged from May at 2.8%, while core inflation, which strips out prices of fresh food, accelerated to 2.6%, from 2.5% in May.

Jul 21, 2024 - 21:05

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Asia-Pacific markets track Wall Street slide on tech sell-off; Japan headline inflation holds steady

This photo taken on October 23, 2022 shows people looking at fruit and vegetables outside a supermarket along a covered shopping street in Tokyo.

Richard A. Brooks | Afp | Getty Images

Asia-Pacific markets fell on Friday, tracking Wall Street declines as investors continued to rotate out of tech stocks and take profits from the rally in equities in recent weeks.

"There's some profit taking," said Keith Buchanan, senior portfolio manager at Globalt Investments. "I kind of cringe a bit if the profit taking occurs five days into a trade, but that just shows us the magnitude of what we've seen as far as the rotation."

In Asia, Japan's inflation came in at 2.8% for June unchanged from May, while core inflation, which strips out prices of fresh food, accelerated to 2.6%, from 2.5%.

However, the core inflation reading was lower than the 2.7% expected by a Reuters poll of economists.

Japan's Nikkei 225 ended the day 0.16% lower at 40,063.79, while the broad-based Topix retreated 0.27% to end at 2,860.83.

The country's central bank is unlikely to raise interest rates at its policy-setting meeting in July as it seeks to support economic growth, more than 75% of the economists said in a Reuters poll.

Japanese chip-related stocks rebounded from Thursday's losses, with semiconductor suppliers rising. Tokyo Electron ended the session up 2.30%, while Advantest gained 1.57%.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was down 2.02% in its final hour of trade, while mainland China's CSI 300 inched up 0.51% to close at 3,539.

However, Chinese chip stocks listed in Hong Kong bucked the trend, with Hua Hong Semiconductor up 4.46% and SMIC gaining 1.5%.

South Korea's Kospi fell 1.02% to 2,795.46. The index lost 2.15% this week, marking its steepest weekly decline since April 15. The small-cap Kosdaq climbed 0.76% to end the trading session at 828.72.

South Korean chipmaker Samsung Electronics dropped 2.88%, while peer SK Hynix shed 1.41%.

Taiwanese chip stocks continued to decline, with heavyweights Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company dropping 3.48%, while Hon Hai Precision Industry — known internationally as Foxconn — lost over 2%.