Singapore — Shares in Chinese tech firms mostly rose in mixed Asia-Pacific trading on Monday, with oil prices falling more than 3%.
Meituan’s stock had risen 11.56 percent by Monday’s close in Hong Kong, while Tencent’s had up 2.81 percent.
Meituan announced on Friday that income for the last three months of 2021 was more than planned. According to data from Refinitiv Eikon, the company’s revenue for the fourth quarter came in at 49.52 billion yuan ($7.78 billion), beating analyst projections of 49.2 billion yuan.
The Hang Seng Technology index increased 2.62 percent to 4,491.01 points. However, other Chinese IT stocks fell: JD.com fell 1.75 percent, while SenseTime fell 1.9 percent.
“Even if you look at where we are today, where we are seeing very substantial and sharp reductions, values are now at much more reasonable levels, I believe it is still very tough for investors… Mark Konyn, AIA’s group chief investment officer, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Monday that he needed to “actually create the fortitude to go back in at these prices.”
The Hang Seng index in Hong Kong rose 1.31 percent to 21,684.97 at the close.
Markets in Asia-Pacific are mixed
On Monday, the larger Asia-Pacific markets struggled to find direction.
Mainland Shanghai’s composite index rose 0.07 percent to 3,214.50, while Shenzhen’s component fell 1.017 percent to 11,949.94.
Chinese industrial earnings increased in the first two months of the year, according to data released over the weekend. According to figures released on Sunday, profits at China’s industrial enterprises increased by 5.0 percent from January to February of last year.
Investors have been looking for signs of policy softening from Chinese authorities amid concerns about the country’s future prospects as it deals with challenges such as the worst Covid outbreak since the pandemic’s original peak in early 2020. Shanghai, China’s largest metropolis, began a two-stage shutdown on Monday.
The Nikkei 225 index in Japan down 0.73 percent to 27,943.89, while the Topix index fell 0.41 percent to 1,973.37. The Kospi in South Korea was hardly changed on the day, closing at 2,729.56.
The S&P/ASX 200 index in Australia finished marginally higher at 7,412.40. As of 4:13 p.m. local time, the Straits Times index in Singapore had likewise risen 0.29 percent.
Outside of Japan, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific stocks was slightly changed.
The price of oil has dropped by more than 3%
In the afternoon of Asian trading hours, oil prices fell 3.32 percent to $116.65 per barrel, according to international benchmark Brent crude futures. Crude futures in the United States fell 3.71 percent to $109.68 a barrel.
Following a recent recovery from below 98.7, the US dollar index, which monitors the greenback against a basket of peers, was at 99.296.
The Japanese yen was trading at 123.88 per dollar, down from depths below 120 seen last week. The Australian dollar was trading at $0.753, up from $0.74 last week.
