Reds dominate Asian stock markets
Asian markets dragged lower with Japanese and Hong Kong stocks; Investors evaluate inflation data.
Asia-Pacific markets fell on Friday; Hong Kong and Japanese markets led losses as investors digested inflation data.
The Nikkei 225 lost 1.24 percent, while the broad-based Topix lost 0.49 percent. Investors evaluated Japan’s April inflation for clues about the Bank of Japan’s monetary policy moves.
Japan’s core inflation, which excludes fresh food and energy, fell to 2.2 percent from 2.6 percent in March, in line with expectations. Headline inflation slowed to 2.5 percent from 2.7 percent in March.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 1.35 percent, while China’s CSI 300 index fell 0.22 percent.
In South Korea, the Kospi fell nearly 1 percent, dragged down by Samsung Electronics, while the small-cap Kosdaq lost 0.45 percent.
Shares of Samsung Electronics fell 2.4 percent after Reuters reported that the South Korean tech giant’s latest high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips are not yet ready for use by U.S. chipmaker Nvidia.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 also fell 1.06 percent.