Asian markets are mainly in the red on Thursday for their first session of 2025, reflecting in particular concerns about American customs duties on Chinese products that President-elect Donald Trump has promised to increase.
In China, the Shanghai composite index lost 1.05% to reach 3,316.49 points around 04:20 GMT, while that of Shenzhen fell 0.61% to 1,945.50 points.
The Hong Kong Hang Seng index for its part showed a decrease of 1.48% to 19,762.85 points.
A sign of the fragility of China’s economic recovery despite government stimulus measures, the country’s manufacturing activity also continued to climb in December but at a lower rate than the previous month, according to an independent index published Thursday.
The purchasing managers’ activity index (PMI), calculated by the firm S&P Global and the Chinese economic media Caixin, stood at 50.5 points, compared to 51.5 in November. This figure remains above the threshold of 50 points which indicates an expansion of activity.
The world’s second-largest economy continues to face a crisis in its real estate sector, sluggish internal consumption and trade tensions with the United States and the European Union (EU).
American President-elect Donald Trump, who will be inaugurated at the end of January, has already promised to strengthen customs duties on Chinese imports.
Tuesday, for the last session of the year 2024 on Wall Street, the Dow Jones and even more so the Nasdaq index and the broader S&P 500 index ended in decline, unlike the Paris and London stock exchanges which ended 2024 in green.
The Tokyo Stock Exchange is closed until Monday. It concluded the year 2024 on Monday with a slight decline, in the wake of a plunge in the yen.
The Japanese currency was stable on Thursday, at $157.06 (+0.09%).
In terms of oil prices, the price of a barrel of Brent from the North Sea rose 0.38% to $74.92 around 04:20 GMT. Its American equivalent, the barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI), followed a similar trend, increasing by 0.40% to $72.01.
With AFP
