Japan shares soar as the rest of Asia slumps amid inflation woes
Asian shares reportedly declined on Monday on the back of growing concerns about economic the disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and global inflation, greatly hurting the investors’ sentiments
However, Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index saw a 1.1% jump following the landslide victory of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in a parliamentary election.
Two days after the assassination of former Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, Japan’s governing party and its coalition partner, Komeito Party, secured a major win in Sunday balloting.
Although the Liberal Democratic Party was guaranteed to win even before the incident, a few analysts believe that the shock of Abe’s untimely passing might have strengthened the victory.
The ruling coalition’s combined share reached 146 out of 248 seats in the upper house.
PM Fumio Kishida stands to rule uninterrupted until a 2025 scheduled election, ensuring that the party’s and Abe’s pro-U.S. defense and diplomatic policies will continue unaffected.
On the other hand, South Korea’s Kospi was down by 0.4%, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was down by 1.1%. Shanghai Composite dropped by 1.2%, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped by 3%.
Technology shares in China fell after the business regulators penalized enterprises for not reporting the required past transactions. While shares of Alibaba fell by 6.8%, those of Tencent Holding dropped by 3.2%.
Wall Street also had a rocky finish last week as Chinese economic indicators and hikes by central banks, such as by the US Federal Reserve, to control surging inflation, took the spotlight.
As per the data released by the government last weekend, inflation in the U.S. has hit a 40-year high, signaling a sharp divide between the economy and the labor market, amid weak real estate sales and manufacturing.
The federal bank has been aggressively hiking the interest rate, which has now reached between 1.50-1.75%—the sharpest since 1994—and was nearly zero earlier in March this year.
Brent crude oil, which is considered the international benchmark, fell by $1.71, reaching $105.31 per barrel.
