Asian stock markets largely started off with gains for the second day in a row early Wednesday, although Chinese indexes stumbled after Tuesday’s rally.
A day after near-3% bounces from multiyear lows, Chinese benchmarks were down slightly as the Trump administration confirmed it would impose 25% tariffs on $16 billion in Chinese imports later this month. The Shanghai Composite
SHCOMP, -1.27%
was down 0.5% and the Shenzhen Composite
399106, -1.90%
slipped 0.4%.
Hong Kong stocks eked out gains as a pair of notable IPOs launched. The Hang Seng Index
HSI, +0.39%
was up 0.1%, with tech and energy stocks leading the gains. Tencent
0700, +1.96%
was up 1.5% while PetroChina
0857, +3.23%
gained 2.6%. Meanwhile, China Tower was sticking around its IPO price in initial trading while Nasdaq-listed biotech BeiGene was off 3.2% as its secondary offering started trading.
Financials and tech helped push Japan’s Nikkei
NIK, -0.08%
to a 0.4% gain. SoftBank
9984, +4.78%
was strong again, up 3.8% more amid word that it plans to invest in Alibaba’s enlarged delivery-services unit. Meanwhile, the financial-business subsection climbed nearly 2% in morning trading.
Elsewhere, South Korea’s Kospi
SEU, +0.06%
inched up, as did benchmarks in Taiwan
Y9999, +0.84%
, Australia
XJO, +0.23%
and New Zealand
NZ50GR, -0.04%
, while Singapore’s Strait Times Index
STI, -0.40%
fell nearly 1%.
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