Australia Stocks Along With S&P/ASX 200 Drops

On Monday, Australia stocks were at a low level after the close in the stock market. It was when losses in the Energy, Healthcare, and Consumer Staples sectors led shares lower.

Meanwhile, the S&P/ASX 200 plunged 0.37% at the close in Sydney.

In the stock trading, the best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Afterpay Touch Group Ltd, which soared 4.50% or 1.400 points to trade at 32.530 at the close.

Moreover, Orocobre Ltd increased 3.82% or 0.130 points to end at 3.530 along with Appen Ltd, which inched up 3.27% or 0.760 points to 24.000 in late trade.

On the flip side, the worst performers of the session were Virgin Money UK PLC, which tumbled 3.70% or 0.130 points to trade at 3.380 at the close.

Pinnacle Investment Management Group Ltd also dropped 3.48% or 0.170 points to end at 4.710 as well as Cooper Energy Ltd, which fell 3.23% or 0.020 points to 0.600 at the stock trading.

On the Sydney Stock Exchange, falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones by 599 to 527, and 348 ended unmoved.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, strengthen up by 3.33% to 11.556.

Asian Markets Develop Ahead of U.S.-China Deal Signing

Elsewhere, Asian markets traded mostly above average this morning. It is ahead of the possible signing of the U.S.-China partial trade pact due this week.

Meanwhile, China’s Shanghai Composite was little altered, while the Shenzhen Component increased by 0.3%.

On Wednesday, the U.S. is due to sign the long-awaited phase one trade deal with China.

The event will take place at the White House, which confidently will permit the world’s two leading economies to move on from a trade war.

For the past 18 months, financial markets have shaken due to that trade war.

On the other side, Beijing will boost imports from the U.S. as it was under the terms of the agreement.

Moreover, the bolstering is in exchange for the interruption of the December tariffs on Chinese imports to the U.S.

There will also be a partial rollback of specific existing tariffs.

However, no deadline has been set for phase two trade talks.

It is even though U.S. President Donald Trump has stated earlier that the discussions will start soon after the ratification of the phase one deal.

On the data front, China will check in its most recent GDP statement this week.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index grew 0.9%. South Korea’s KOSPI also developed at 0.7%.

In a news report, Washington indicated it intends to have diplomatic talks with North Korea “back on track.”

So far, the two nations have not got into much progress. It is regarding negotiations to pull apart North Korea’s nuclear and missile program.