Christmas is nearly here, and everyone is hastily preparing for this festivity. Stocks are no exception, as there are many that close earlier ahead of Christmas. For example, markets in Australia and Hong Kong closed on Tuesday ahead of the holiday on Wednesday. Also, Asia markets were mixed in Tuesday afternoon trade following another record session on Wall Street.
Shenzhen component gained 0.68% and rose to 0.7%. Meanwhile, the Shanghai Composite added 0.25%. Furthermore, after Monday’s drastic fall, Chinese stocks were higher by Tuesday afternoon. Unfortunately, some stocks saw declines. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index took a severe downturn of 0.15% to close early at 27,864.10 ahead of the Christmas Day holiday on Wednesday. Also, in Hong Kong, Sunny Optical declined 0.37% while Taiwan’s Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company soaked 0.45%.
In Japan, the Topix index inched down 0.14%, and in South Korea, the Kospi fell by 0.52%. Overall, the MSCI Asia ex-Japan index traded 0.07% lower. Also, The Nikkei 225 was considerably smaller.
Allegedly, China plans to cut import tariffs on a variety of trading goods to boost deals, as the Chinese official finance representatives announced, from January 1, 2020. It plans to lower import tariffs on up to 900 products.
Meanwhile, the Australian shares have also closed for Christmas Eve, the S&P/ASX 200 up 0.14% to 6,795.20. Also, Shares of Apple suppliers were assorted on Tuesday afternoon.
Oil and Currencies’ Stocks on Christmas Eve
Oil prices varied a little in the afternoon of Asian trading hours. The U.S crude futures dipped to 60.49 USD per barrel, and the international benchmark Brent Crude future sloped at 66.37 UD per barrel.
The Australian dollar rose from 0.69 USD to 0.6916 USD. After strengthening from levels around 109.5, the Japanese Yen traded at 109.38 per dollar.
However, the USD dollar index was last at 97.67 after touching highs around 97.8 yesterday.
