Asian stocks open lower, as IMF lowers its global growth forecast

Asian stocks opened on negative performance in the third trading session of this week, to follow their US counterparts drop yesterday, as the Japanese, Chinese and New Zealand's stocks fell, as well as Hong Kong's Hang Seng and South Korea's Kospi Index, due to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) lowering its forecast for the global economic growth in 2019 to 3.3% from 3.5% in its previous forecast.

Additionally, markets are also looking forward to the upcoming European summit later today, during which a trade negotiations between China and the European Union is expected to be discussed, and to respond to the proposals of US President Donald Trump's administration, on imposing custom duties on the new helicopter for passenger transportations, some food products, clothing and fireworks, the summit will also focus on the Brexit file.

Washington's proposals come in response to the damage caused by the European Union support to Airbus, the rival of the most prominent Company of America's aircraft industry, Boeing, which faces extensive challenges in the current time. the markets are also anticipating the developments in the file of trade negotiations between the United States and China, with the results of the Annual Spring Meetings between the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in Washington.

This comes hours before the European Central Bank (ECB) meeting on Wednesday, during which ECB monetary policymakers may keep interest rates at zero levels, before we see the upcoming talk by ECB President Mario Draghi, which was announced at the previous ECB meeting Has announced a new round of long-term target refinancing operations (TLTROs) to be launched by September of this year until March 2021 with a two-year maturity with zero interest

Asian stocks open on a negative performance

In terms of trading, the Japanese stock indices fell during today's session, with the broader Topix index shedding 0.81% (13.06) to the level of 1,605.70, Japan's Nikkei 225 index fell 0.64%, shedding 140.01 points to 21,662.58.

China's CSI 300 index fell by 0.53% (21.72 points) to 4,053.71, while the Shanghai index fell 0.61%, (19.90 points) to 3,219.77.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.61% (183.43 points) to 29,974.06. South Korea's Kospi fell 0.21% (4.74 points) to 2,208.82.

To the New Zealand NZX 50 index, which fell 0.60% 58.46 points to 9,728.84. On the other hand, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index gained 0.16% (99.79 points) to 6,231.60.