SINGAPORE — Shares in Asia were mixed on Monday as trading in 2022 kicked off, with some major markets in the region closed.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index shed earlier gains and fell into negative territory, declining 0.74% as of its final hour of trading.
Trading in the shares and structured products of debt-ridden Chinese developer China Evergrande Group was halted in Hong Kong on Monday, according to an exchange notice. No immediate reason was given for the halt.
Hong Kong-listed shares of Evergrande-related firms were mixed. China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Group soared 12.78% while Evergrande Property Services was unchanged.
Other property stocks in Hong Kong also declined, with shares of Country Garden falling 3.03% while Sunac plunged 9.34%. The Hang Seng Properties index traded 1.16% lower.
Meanwhile, shares of Chinese artificial intelligence firm Sensetime soared 28.91% on Monday, after seeing a strong debut in Hong Kong last week.
Elsewhere, South Korea’s Kospi gained 0.37% to close at 2,988.77 while the Taiex in Taiwan advanced 0.28% on the day to 18,270.51.
Over in Southeast Asia, the Straits Times index in Singapore climbed 0.28% in afternoon trade.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dipped 0.03%.
Markets in Australia, mainland China and Japan were closed on Monday for a holiday.
Currencies and oil
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 95.889 after recently falling from above 95.7.
The Japanese yen traded at 115.32 per dollar, weaker than levels below 114.6 seen against the greenback last week. The Australian dollar was at $0.725, still above levels below $0.722 seen in the previous trading week.
Oil prices were higher in the afternoon of Asia trading hours, with international benchmark Brent crude futures up 0.95% to $78.52 per barrel. U.S. crude futures gained 0.93% to $75.91 per barrel.
