SINGAPORE – Asia-Pacific shares traded mixed on Monday morning, with investors watching Alibaba’s stake in Hong Kong following another development between the affiliated Ant Group and billionaire Jack Ma.
The Nikkei 225 in Japan fell 0.42% in early trading, while the Topix index rose 0.3%. Japan’s exports rose 16.1% in March from a year earlier, the Ministry of Finance showed on Monday. This was much higher than the 11.6% increase that economists expected in a Reuters poll.
South Korea’s Kospi also declined by 0.11%.
Meanwhile, equities in Australia rose as the S & P / ASX 200 rose 0.13%.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific stocks outside Japan traded 0.11% lower.
Investors will look at shares of Alibaba in Hong Kong on Monday. This comes after Ant Group said in a tweet that a recent report from Reuters that the firm was following Jack Ma’s way of leaving was ‘untrue and unfounded’.
Reuters reported over the weekend that financial technology giant Ant was “investigating” options for Mom to sell his stake in the firm and “relinquish control”, citing a source familiar with the thinking of regulators and two people with close ties with the company. “
Currencies and oil
The US dollar index, which follows the rate behind a basket of its peers, was at 91.601 after a recent drop of above 91.8.
The Japanese yen traded at 108.68 per dollar, stronger than levels above 109.2 against the dollar seen last week. The Australian dollar changed hands from $ 0.7714 after rising below $ 0.768 last week.
Oil prices fell in the morning of trading hours in Asia, with the international standard Brent crude futures contract down 0.51% to $ 66.43 a barrel. U.S. crude futures also fell 0.51% to $ 62.81 a barrel.