SINGAPORE – Stocks in India fell as stocks in Asia Pacific traded lower on Monday.
Both the Nifty 50 and BSE Sensex in India fell more than 2% each on Monday morning.
The losses came when the Covid-19 situation in the country remained severe. Reuters reported that the hardest-hit state of Maharashtra is considering a lockdown.
Meanwhile, stocks in mainland China also fell as the Shanghai compound fell 0.81% while the Shenzhen component fell 1.72%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 0.98%.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 fell 0.52% while the Topix index was below the flatline. South Korea’s Kospi bucked the trend, rising 0.03%.
Australian stocks were down as the S & P / ASX 200 lost 0.45%.
The broadest MSCI index for stocks in the Asia-Pacific region outside Japan fell 1.19%.
Stocks in motion
Currencies and oil
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback versus a basket of its peers, stood at 92.251 after falling above 92.8 earlier this month.
The Japanese yen was trading at 109.54 per dollar, stronger than above 110.5 against the greenback last week. The Australian dollar changed hands at $ 0.7608 after last week’s turbulent trading as it rose from over $ 0.765 to around $ 0.759.
Oil prices barely changed on the morning of trading hours in Asia. The international reference Brent crude oil futures rose slightly to $ 62.99 per barrel. The US crude oil futures were slightly higher at $ 59.37 a barrel.
