Asian stock markets are trading notably lower on Monday with investors pressing sales amid lingering concerns about the near term outlook for the global economy. A flat lead from Wall Street where stocks ended mixed on Friday and lack of fresh triggers are also contributing to the subdued trend in the region.
In the Australian market, mining, energy, consumer discretionary and industrial stocks are mostly trading weak. Healthcare and property trusts stocks are finding support, while financial stocks are trading mixed.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is currently down 30.3 points or 0.7 percent at 4,378. The broader All Ordinaries index is trading at 4,402, down 28.8 points or 0.7 percent from its previous close.
Top miners BHP Billiton (BHP,BBL) and Rio Tinto (RIO,RIO.L) are down 1 percent and 2.4 percent, respectively.
Among energy stocks, Woodside Petroleum, Oil Search and Origin Energy are down 1 to 2 percent, while Santos and Caltex Australia are down with modest losses.
In the banking space, ANZ Bank (ANZ), Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Westpac (WBK) are down marginally, while National Australia Bank is trading modestly higher.
Atlas Iron and Myer Holdings are trading lower by 4.8 percent and 4.2 percent, respectively. Whitehaven Coal, Crown, Fairfax Media, ALS, Regis Resources, Paladin Energy, Aurora Oil & Gas and Newcrest Mining are down 3 to 3.3 percent.
Iluka Resources, Beach Energy, Arrium, Bluescope Steel, PanAust, Sims Metal Management, Oz Minerals and Boral are also trading sharply lower.
Shares of agricultural chemicals maker Nufarm Limited are down 1.8 percent despite the company reporting good earnings results. The company said it returned to full-year profitability despite one-off costs from legal action and restructuring. Nufarm made a net profit of A$72.6 million in the year to July 31, compared to loss of A$49.9 million in the previous year.
In the currency market, the Australian dollar opened weak and was quoting at US$1.0447 in early trades, down from Friday's close of US$1.0464.
Stocks opened lower in the Japanese market with a stronger yen triggering some selling in exporters and automobile stocks. As selling gained some momentum, the market lost further ground subsequently and was trading notably lower when the morning session ended.
Steel, non-ferrous metals, chemicals and insurance stocks also traded weak. Shares from electric power, services and railway sections found some support.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index, which opened at around 9,071 and declined to around 9,031, was down 59.6 points or 0.7 percent to 9,050.3 at the end of the morning session.
Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Sony Financial Holdings Inc., Pioneer Corp., Sumitomo Metal Industries, JFE Holdings, Canon Inc., Nippon Yusen KK and Mazda Motor lost 3 to 5 percent.
Nippon Steel Corp. and Mitsumi Electric declined by about 3 percent. Sony Corp. (SNE), Bridgestone Corp., Sumitomo Chemical, Japan Steel Works, Toho Zinc and Konica Minolta all lost more than 2 percent on selling pressure.
Mitsubishi Materials, Nissan Motor, Nomura Holdings, Isuzu Motors, Kobe Steel, Olympus Corp., Nippon Light Metals and Inpex Corp. also posted notable losses.
Meanwhile, Yahoo Japan Corp., KDDI Corp., Aozora Bank, Nikon Corp., Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, All Nippon Airways, Shizuoka Bank, Softbank Corp. and Daiichi Sankyo moved higher, gaining 1 to 3 percent.
According to the minutes of Bank of Japan's August 8-9 board meeting, a member of the board said the central bank might need to come up with further measures for raising inflation expectations to exert an impact on the currency market.
"Japan's economy has not yet overcome deflation and thus it might be necessary for the bank to devise further ways to boost inflation expectations, such as exerting an influence on foreign exchange rates," the minutes, released Monday, reveal.
At the meeting, the policy board voted unanimously to maintain the target of the bank's asset purchase program at 70 trillion yen.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar traded in the lower 78 yen range in early deals in Tokyo. The yen is currently trading at 78.06 to the dollar.
Among other markets in the Asia-Pacific region, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea are all trading notably lower. Taiwan is down with modest losses, while New Zealand is bucking the trend and trading marginally up. Markets across the region had ended mostly higher on Friday.
On Wall Street, stocks failed to sustain early gains and ended nearly flat on Friday, amid lingering uncertainty about the outlook for the markets.
The major averages finished the day mixed, although they all closed near the unchanged line. While the Nasdaq inched up 4 points or 0.1 percent to 3,180, the Dow edged down 17.5 points or 0.1 percent to 13.579.5 and the S&P 500 ended down 0.1 points or less than a tenth of a percent at 1,460.2.
Major European markets turned in a mixed performance on Friday. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 index closed just below the unchanged line, the French CAC 40 index and the German DAX index ended up 0.6 percent and 0.8 percent, respectively.
U.S. crude oil rebounded to close higher on Friday, due largely to a slightly weakening dollar. Crude for November, the new front-month contract, gained $0.47 or 0.5 percent to close at $92.89 a barrel on the New York Mercantile, after scaling a high of $93.84 a barrel intraday.
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Market Analysis
June 05, 2026 16:18 ET A busy week for economic news flow saw a slew of reports being released that reflected the trends in the U.S. labor market. In Europe, economic growth and inflation data gained attention as the European Central Bank and Bank of England head for policy session later in the month. In Asia, the monetary policy session of the Indian central bank was in focus as the country, a major oil importer, reels under the pressures of a weaker rupee and rising inflation.