Asian stocks mixed on light risk taking; Nikkei down 0.97%

Investing.com - Asian stocks were mixed to start the new week as traders appeared to be treading carefully with regard to riskier assets. Proving that point, the U.S. dollar traded higher against most of its major rivals except for the yen.

In Asian trading Monday, Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.97% as the yen gained steam against the greenback.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.21% while the Shanghai Composite added 0.13% after the HSBC/Markit Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) for the services industry for July read 51.3, the same reading as June. Readings above 50 indicate expansion.

The official government reading for non-manufacturing PMI in July was 54.1 compared with 53.9 in June. Property developers and consumer staples names were among the leaders Monday in China.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index fell 0.2% after the Australian Bureau of Statistics said that Australian retail sales remained unchanged last month following a 0.2% increase in June. Analysts had expected Australian retail sales to rise 0.4% last month.

The Reserve Bank of Australia meets Tuesday.

New Zealand’s NZSE 50 inched up 0.06% even after China and Russia said they halt imports of New Zealand milk powder.

Shares of dairy giant Fonterra also plunged after the company confirmed it had sold contaminated whey protein to eight different buyers in China, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand and Saudi Arabia. Almost 90% of China’s USD1.9 billion billion in milk-powder imports last year originated in New Zealand, and economists said that a prolonged ban could produce a shortage of dairy products in China, the New York Times reported.

South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.25% while Singapore’s Straits Times Index dropped 0.50%. S&P 500 futures fell 0.09%. The benchmark U.S. index gained nearly 1.1% last week.