Asian stocks opened mixed but mostly negative on the last session of the week and month, as the Japanese, Chinese, and the Australian stocks fell as well as Hong Kong's Hang Seng and the South Korean Kospi index, while New Zealand stocks rose, as markets parse the mounting tensions between the US and China over the Hong Kong crisis.
The Chinese ministry of foreign affairs stated on Thursday, that the US had "evil intentions," hours after President Donald Trump formally signed on Wednesday a bill to support Hong Kong protesters, which mounted market's concerns about the chances of resolving trade dispute between the two countries and their reach of an interim trade agreement before next december ahead of Washington's scheduled imposition of a 15% tariffs hike against $160 billion worth of Chinese goods.
As for stocks, Japanese stock indices fell today session, with the Topix index falling by 0.19% or 3.26 points to 1,704.78, and Nikkei 225 index fell by 0.22% or 51.63 points to 23,357.51.
The Chinese stocks also fell, as the CSI 300 index fell by 1.01% or 39.08 points to 3,823.22, and the Shanghai Composite index fell by 0.64% or 18.61 points to 2,871.08.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell by 2.05%, or 552.05 points to 26,341.68, and the South Korean Kospi fell by 1.36%, or 28.82 points to 2,089.78.
To Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index, which fell by 0.03% or 1.80 points to 6,862.20, while New Zealand's NZX 50 rose by 1.09 % or 121.65 points to 11,328.94.