Asian stocks struggle to find footing after Easter break

By FXStreet With liquidity back into markets after a four-day Easter holidays break, the stocks on the Asian indices turned into the negative territory after an early wobble this Tuesday, with the Australian stocks leading the decline in its Asian counterparts.

Asian stocks fall for the 1st time in 3 days

The Japanese benchmark index, the Nikkei 225 is down -0.23%% and manages to regain 17k barrier amid prevalent bearish undertone driven by steep losses seen in the health–care/ pharma as well as financial stocks. As the Japanese markets draw closer towards financial year ending, more than two-thirds of the companies on the index traded without the right to the next dividend.

While the overnight rally in the yen against the greenback also weighed on the exporters’ stocks and eventually dragged the index lower. More so, mixed macro releases from Japan earlier on the day, further added to the subdued sentiment surrounding the Japanese stocks. Japan’s household spending ticked higher in February, while the retail volume rose less than estimates and jobless rate also disappointed markets.

The Australian markets underperformed its Asian peers and kept heavy losses, sending ASX 200 index down -0.80% to 5,043. The sell-off in the Australian equities can be attributed …read more

Source:: FX Street