Shares in Asia show resilience as Greece approaches sovereign default

Investing.com - Share markets in Asia showed resilience in the main on Tuesday as Greece looked set to default on sovereign debt.

The Nikkei 225 rose 0.28% after the break, while the Shanghai Composite was down a scant 0.01%. The Hang Seng index jumped 1.21% and the S&P/ASX 200 eased 0.15%.

A last-minute series of phone calls and offers failed to reach a breakthrough on Greece's debt package by early Tuesday in Asia, setting the stage for volatile markets.

Talk swirled about the outcome of a planned July 5 referendum with Greece's Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras hinting Monday he might resign if the Greek people vote in favour of the creditors' proposal.

"If the (Greek) people vote yes, then the referendum outcome will be completely respected but I will not serve it" Tsipras said in a television interview. "I'm not an all weather prime minister. I will respect the verdict and prepare the ground as outlined by the constitution and the parliament."

Earlier in the day on Monday, President Barack Obama spoke to France's President Francois Hollande, urging renewed efforts to reach a deal, and then European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker reportedly made a refined proposal that was rejected by the Greek government with the current bailout due to expire June 30 and no extension on offer.

In Australia, HIA new home sales for May fell 2.3%, a sharp drop from a 0.6% gain month-on-month last month and official housing credit for May gained 0.5%, meeting expectations, while private sector credit also rose 0.5% month-on-month, again matching seen results.

In Japan, average cash earnings rose 0.6% in May, a tad below the 0.7% gain seen year-on-year, but the second straight increase.

Overnight, U.S. stocks plummeted on Monday experiencing their worst session of the year, as catastrophic debt crises in Greece and Puerto Rico weighed on the major indices.

Less than 48 hours after the Greek parliament approved a July 5 referendum that could decide the nation's fate in the euro zone, Standard & Poor's downgraded Greece's credit to a CCC- from a previous rating of CCC.

Unless Greece improves its economic outlook immeasurably, S&P indicated the nation is inevitably headed toward a default, adding that there is a 50-50 chance the nation will leave the euro.

Stocks on the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged nearly 2% on Monday, suffering its worst one-day loss since June, 2013. The NASDAQ Composite index fell more than 120 points to dip below 5,000 while the S&P 500 Composite index also fell by more than 2% to move into negative territory for the year.

The Dow lost 350.33 or 1.95% to 17,596.35 to erase all of its gains for 2015, while the NASDAQ dove 122.04 or 2.40% to 4,958.47, as Apple Inc (NASDAQ:NASDAQ:AAPL) lagged.

The S&P 500 fell 43.85 or 2.09% to 2,057.64, as all 10 sectors closed in the red.