{"id":39869,"date":"2025-05-19T11:36:19","date_gmt":"2025-05-19T11:36:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/19\/asian-markets-close-nikkei-kospi-down-sensex-closes-271-pts-lower\/"},"modified":"2025-05-19T11:36:19","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T11:36:19","slug":"asian-markets-close-nikkei-kospi-down-sensex-closes-271-pts-lower","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/19\/asian-markets-close-nikkei-kospi-down-sensex-closes-271-pts-lower\/","title":{"rendered":"Asian markets close: Nikkei, Kospi down; Sensex closes 271 pts lower"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A wave of caution swept across Asia-Pacific financial markets on Monday, with most major indices closing lower as investors digested a fresh batch of economic data from China and the implications of Moody’s recent downgrade of the US credit rating.<\/p>\n

This subdued sentiment cast a shadow over the region, leading to broad-based declines, including a modest dip in Indian benchmarks like the Sensex.<\/p>\n

The primary catalysts for the day’s downturn were twofold. <\/p>\n

Firstly, economic indicators from China revealed a slowdown in retail sales growth for April, signaling persistent worries about consumption in the world’s second-largest economy. <\/p>\n

Retail sales rose 5.1% year-on-year in April, falling short of Reuters\u2019 estimates for 5.5% growth. <\/p>\n

Conversely, industrial output provided a slightly more resilient picture, growing 6.1% year-on-year in April. <\/p>\n

While this was stronger than analysts\u2019 expectations for a 5.5% rise, it represented a slowdown from the 7.7% jump recorded in March, indicating that the impact from US tariffs was perhaps not as severe as initially feared, though still a moderating factor.<\/p>\n

Secondly, the decision by Moody\u2019s Ratings on Friday to downgrade the US sovereign credit rating by one notch, from Aaa to Aa1, continued to reverberate through global markets. <\/p>\n

Moody’s cited mounting challenges in funding the US federal budget deficit and the increasing cost of refinancing debt in a high-interest-rate environment as key reasons for its action. <\/p>\n

With this move, Moody\u2019s aligns with other major rating agencies; S&P had previously downgraded the US rating in 2011, and Fitch followed suit in 2023, both reducing it to AA+.<\/p>\n

Despite the gravity of a sovereign downgrade, some analysts suggested a muted immediate market reaction. <\/p>\n

Regional market performance<\/h2>\n

The cautious sentiment translated into widespread losses across Asian bourses.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hong Kong\u2019s Hang Seng index\u00a0declined 0.05% to close at 23,332.72, while\u00a0mainland China\u2019s CSI 300\u00a0dropped 0.48%.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Japan\u2019s benchmark Nikkei 225\u00a0slipped 0.68% to finish at 37,498.63, and the broader Topix index lost 0.08% to end the day at 2,738.39. <\/p>\n

In\u00a0South Korea, the Kospi\u00a0declined 0.89% to close at 2,603.42, with the small-cap Kosdaq trading 1.56% lower to close at 713.75.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Australia\u2019s S&P\/ASX 200\u00a0also succumbed to the pressure, falling 0.58% to close at 8,295.1, as the Reserve Bank of Australia commenced its two-day monetary policy meeting.<\/p>\n

This downturn in Asia followed a mixed close for US markets on Friday, where the S&P 500 had managed to post a fifth consecutive session of gains and a strong weekly advance, as investors seemingly looked past disappointing consumer sentiment data and persistent inflation worries. <\/p>\n

On Friday, the S&P 500 climbed 0.70% to 5,958.38, the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.52% to 19,211.10, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.78% to 42,654.74, pushing the 30-stock benchmark into positive territory for 2025. <\/p>\n

However, US stock futures pointed to a weaker start for the new week, with futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping 292 points, or 0.7%, S&P 500 futures slipping 0.7%, and Nasdaq 100 futures falling 0.8%. <\/p>\n

This came after a four-day rally driven by temporary US-China tariff cuts and encouraging inflation reports.<\/p>\n

Sensex ends weaker amid sectoral divergence<\/h2>\n

The Indian stock market concluded Monday\u2019s trading session on a subdued note. <\/p>\n

The\u00a0BSE Sensex\u00a0closed the day at 82,059.42, reflecting a decline of 271.17 points or 0.33%. Similarly, the\u00a0Nifty 50\u00a0ended at 24,941.35, down 74.35 points or 0.3%. <\/p>\n

In a slight divergence, the Nifty Bank index managed to settle with a marginal gain of 0.12% at 55,420.70.<\/p>\n

Despite the overall market weakness, some heavyweight stocks managed to post gains. <\/p>\n

Bajaj Finance, PowerGrid, NTPC, IndusInd Bank, and SBI were among the top performers in the Sensex 30. <\/p>\n

Conversely, IT and technology stocks faced significant selling pressure, with Infosys, Reliance, TCS, Tech Mahindra, and Eicher Motors emerging as key laggards, experiencing declines ranging from 1% to 3%.<\/p>\n

The post Asian markets close: Nikkei, Kospi down; Sensex closes 271 pts lower<\/a> appeared first on Invezz<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A wave of caution swept across Asia-Pacific financial markets on Monday, with most major indices closing lower as investors digested a fresh batch of economic data from China and the implications of Moody’s recent downgrade of the US credit rating. This subdued sentiment cast a shadow over the region, leading to broad-based declines, including a <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39870,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-39869","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-investing"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39869\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}