Asian Market Review

Asian markets are subdued Monday morning with little reaction to the spike in oil prices after weekend drone attacks hit major Saudi Arabian production facilities. International benchmark Brent crude has gained more than 13% in early action Monday.

In Australia the S&P/ASX 200 is trading lower by 0.2%, with all the subsectors trading lower, excepting the energy subsector. That is up more than 5% in response to the surge in crude price. Shares of Woodside Petroleum have gained 5.4%, Oil Search is trading up by 5.9%, and Beach Energy is 5.6% higher.

In South Korea the Kospi is trading 0.2% higher, with investors returning from a holiday expended four-day weekend. The gains for the index are coming despite a loss of 1.1% for index heavyweight Samsung, as well as a 3.2% loss for shares of chipmaker SK Hynix.

Mainland China’s markets have opened higher as investors there are awaiting August industrial output data due later in the session. The Shanghai Composite has a 0.4% gain at the open, and the smaller cap Shenzhen Composite has a 0.4% gain. In Hong Kong the Hang Seng has dropped 0.5% right at the open in response to more violence from police and protesters over the weekend as protests drag into the fifteenth week.

In Taiwan the Taiex has gained 0.3% at the open, while Japan’s Nikkei is unchanged as markets remain closed in Japan for a public holiday.

Southeast Asian markets are mixed, with the Straits Times in Singapore trading 0.2% lower, but the KLCI in Malaysia slightly higher by less than 0.1%.