Asia-Pacific equity markets opened mixed on Monday with Australia down and Japan and South Korea up.
As of 11:45 am AEST (1:25 am GMT), Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was 0.6% lower, but Japan’s Nikkei 225 and South Korea’s Kospi 200 were 1.1% and 0.1% higher respectively.
A higher close on Wall Street had been expected to support the ASX benchmark, but weakness in United States stock futures on Sunday night (Monday AEST) had more influence on prices.
A leading Australian jobs survey showed a slight improvement in positions available with the ANZ-Indeed Job Advertisements rising 0.5% in April compared with March but falling 5.1% over the past 12 months.
Global sentiment around equities had been buoyed by gains on Wall Street on Friday (Saturday AEST) when the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.39%, the S&P 500 put on 1.47% and the Nasdaq Composite climbed 1.51%.
However the mood was dampened in subsequent U.S. stock futures trading with the Dow and S&P contracts falling 0.7% each and the Nasdaq Composite 0.8% on Sunday.
Commodities were lower with brent crude oil prices falling 3.5% to US$59.14 per barrel and spot gold losing 0.8% to US$3,266.37 per ounce.
Markets in China and Hong Kong were closed for public holidays while in India the BSE Sensex rose 0.32 to 80,501.99.
In Europe, share indices also marched higher on Friday (Saturday AEST) with the United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 advancing 1.2% to 8,596.35 points, Germany’s DAX gaining 2.6% to 23,086.65 and France’s CAC 40 rising 2.3% to 7,770.48.
