Japan, Australia stocks lower, rest of Asia closed

Most major Asian markets traded largely subdued amid a calm start to a new week, as the Chinese markets remain closed for a week-long New Year celebration.

While New Zealand’s markets are also closed today in observance of Waitangi Day. Other markets closed today include Hong Kong, South Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Singapore.

Asia lower on oil weakness

The Japanese benchmark index, the Nikkei 225 drops -0.17% to 16,790 points, tracking negative close on the Wall Street overnight as also the weakness in the oil prices.

Moreover, heavy losses in the financial sector stocks also weighed on the index. The shares of the financial companies came under pressure after Citigroup downgraded Japanese megabanks Mitsubishi UFJ, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial (SMFG), and Mizuho to Sell, following BOJ’s adoption of negative interest rates last week.

While a weaker yen provided some respite to the exporters’ stocks somewhat. USD/JPY is now making recovery attempts on 117 handle and trades firmer around 117.25 levels.

The Australian markets are also seen posting moderate losses, with the ASX 200 index now declining -0.20% to 4,966. Last week’s 8% drop in the black gold continue to hurt the energy companies and keep the index pressured.