Asian stock market: Bears keeping the reins as Hong Kong issue intensifies

• Asian equities stay mildly offered amid the US-China tussle.
• US President Trump’s comments on the Hong Kong national security legislation awaited.
• Optimism surrounding economic restart, UK/US holiday and a light calendar together portrays fewer moves.

With the US-China raw over Hong Kong bill hitting risk sentiment across the board, Asian shares remain depressed ahead of the European session on open on Monday. Even so, the traders await comments from US President Donald Trump to confirm signals of upcoming sanctions on Hong Kong and China. It should be noted that a lack of major data/events, coupled with a long weekend in the US and the UK, keeps the trading momentum light. However, optimism surrounding the economic restart in Japan, New Zealand and some other Asia-Pacific nations offers a ray of hope at the end of the tunnel.

That said, the MSCI’s index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan drops 0.20% but Japan’s NIKKEI gains 1.5% to 20,695 by the press time. Further, Australia’s ASX 200 and New Zealand’s NZX 50 also follow the footsteps on Japanese shares amid hopes of economic reopen while shares in China remain pressured amid looming concerns over Hong Kong bill.

Further, Hong Kong’s HANG SENG drops more than 1.0% whereas India’s BSE SENSEX marks 0.85% losses to 30,673 as we write. Moving on, markets in South Korea are mildly bid while the absence of traders in Indonesia and the Philippines seem to get noticed.

Amid all these catalysts, US stock futures are marking mild profits of nearly 0.50% by the time of writing.

As markets in the US and the UK are off, coupled with those from the Philippines and Indonesia, traders may witness a lack of moves amid a light calendar. Though, German IFO and GDP numbers might offer intermediate moves.