Shares in Asia-Pacific mixed after Lunar New Year holidays

Shares in Asia-Pacific appeared mixed on Monday, with mainland China markets increasing. It happened as they reopened last week after the Lunar New Year holidays.

The Shanghai Composite bounced 2.04% to close at 3,429.59 while the Shenzhen component gained 0.966% to 13,456.66. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell about 0.3% as of its final hour of trading.

Overview of the companies and their shares

According to Bloomberg, U.S. companies participated in $2.6 trillion worth of takeovers last year. These numbers can easily beat the previous record of $1.97 trillion achieved in 2015. It looks like 2022 will be another year of fast business. Borrowing costs should stay relatively cheap, while the Fed might raise its interest rate several times in 2022.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 fell 0.8% to finish the trading day at 27,248.88, while the Topix index fell 0.25% to 1,925.98. South Korea’s Kospi shed 0.18% to close at 2,745.07.

The S&P/ASX 200 in Australia dropped 0.14% on the day to 7,110.81. However, shares of airline Qantas Airways rose 4.63% after Australia announced it would reopen its borders to vaccinated travelers in February.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares dropped 0.17%.

Investors continued to watch the situation around Ukraine, with the White House national security advisor warning that a Russian invasion could be possible.

Currencies and oil

The U.S. dollar index was 95.525 after its recent decline from above 95.8.

The Japanese yen exchanged at 115.26 per dollar, after last week’s weakening from levels below 114.5 against the greenback. The Australian dollar was at $0.7093, off levels above $0.715 seen last week.

Oil prices appeared lower in the afternoon of Asia trading hours, with international benchmark Brent crude futures down 0.09% to $93.21 per barrel. U.S. crude futures dropped 0.56% to $91.81 per barrel.