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Informist, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026                                      Tel +91 (22) 6985-4000

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Equity Alert: Asian indices mixed Thu amid global geopolitical tensions

 

MUMBAI--0759 IST--Asian equity markets were mixed in early trade Thursday, tracking overnight movement in US indices amid geopolitical instability across the globe. While Hong Kong's Hang Seng was the worst hit index in Asia, South Korea's Kospi led the gains after opening slightly lower. 

 

Rising tensions between China and Japan affected the market sentiment in these countries, as China's CSI 300 and Japan's Nikkei 225 and Topix were 0.1-0.7% lower in initial trade. China escalated trade tensions with Japan by investigating semiconductor chemicals a day after banning dual-use military goods exports to Japan, citing price drops amid tensions over Taiwan, according to media reports. Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's comments about military intervention in Taiwan, along with a lawmaker's visit there, led to Beijing's retaliatory trade measures against Tokyo, the report said.

 

Investors should be more selective when choosing Chinese technology stocks this year, Dow Jones Newswires cited Barclays analysts as saying in a research note. "Government policies to drive economic recovery were a tailwind for Chinese tech stocks in 2025 and drove broader gains," the report cited analysts. 

 

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was slightly higher after a choppy open. Shares of BlueScope Steel fell 2%, after the company rejected a $9-billion takeover bid from Australian conglomerate SGH and US-based Steel Dynamics, according to CNBC.

 

Following are the levels of key Asian indices at 0757 IST:

 

INDEX	LEVEL	CHANGE IN %
CSI 300 Index	4758.4337	(-)0.38
Hang Seng Index	26105.91	(-)1.33
KOSPI	4607.28	1.24
Nikkei 225 Day	51753.59	(-)0.40
TOPIX FIRST SECTION	3508.61	(-)0.08
FTSE Singapore Straits Times	4754.66	0.15
S&P/ASX 200 Index	8732.50	0.42

 

(Simran Rede)

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Equity Alert: US indices end mixed Wed; S&P 500 dn as bk, energy stocks fall

 

MUMBAI--0748 IST--US indices ended mixed on Wednesday, with the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average pulling back from record levels. Banking and energy sector stocks led to the fall in indices, while technology stocks lifted the Nasdaq Composite, which ended 0.2% higher. 

 

Financial sector stocks such as JP Morgan, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo fell. JP Morgan was down 2.3?ter Wolfe Research downgraded the stock to "peer perform" from "outperform," Reuters reported. Blackstone and Apollo Global Management fell more than 5%, which led to a 1.4?cline in the S&P financials index. In the energy sector, Exxon Mobil fell 2%, Chevron was down over 1%, and ConocoPhillips down over 3%.

 

Shares of oil refiners, Valero Energy and Marathon Petroleum rose 3% and 1%, respectively on positive sentiment that oil sales from Venezuela will continue and sanctions would be reduced, CNBC reported, citing sources.

 

Tech giants Nvidia and Microsoft rose about 1?ch and Google's parent company Alphabet rose more than 2%. The stocks were up as investors shifted back to artificial intelligence-related stocks following recent worries about overvaluation, Reuters reported.   

 

Following are the closing levels of US indices Wednesday:  

 

Index	Level	Change in %
S&P 500	6920.93	(-)0.34
NASDAQ Composite	23584.27	0.16
Dow Jones Industrial Average	48996.08	0.94

     

(Adhithya Aji)

 

US$1 = INR 89.88

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

 

Edited by Avishek Dutta

 

All prices from National Stock Exchange, unless otherwise specified.

All percentage changes for share prices are rounded off to the nearest whole number; percentage changes for index values are rounded off to one decimal place.

All times are Indian Standard Time.

 

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