Asian stocks show mixed performance at opening

Asian stocks opened mixed today, with Chinese stocks showing mixed performance while the Japanese stocks with Hong Kong's Hang Seng and the South Korean Kospi fell, as Australian and New Zealand rose after an unexpected cut in interest rates by Bank of New Zealand which beat expectations by 50 basis points to 1.00%.

Markets are still pricing the escalation of the trade war between the world's two largest economies, after the Chinese yuan's sharp drop to more than a 10-year low below the 7 yuan per dollar mark, which was followed by the US criticism and designating China as a currency manipulator for the sake of taking competitive advantages on the expense of the US.

Yesterday, the People's Bank of China denied the US allegations of currency manipulation and the opening of new front in their trade war, stating that the US is ignoring the facts in designating China as currency manipulator, which harm them and other countries.

This came after the escalation of the trade tensions between the 2 countries, especially after the Chinese Ministry of Commerce ordered state-owned companies to suspend purchasing any US agricultural products after President Trump decided a 10% tariffs increase on Chinese imports worth $300 billion, starting from September 1st.

The Chinese Ministry of Commerce also stated that tariffs on US agricultural products purchased after Aug 3rd will not be excluded. Otherwise, the president of People's Bank of China, Yi Gang also said that China would not manipulate its currency to further escalate the trade war with the US.

Japanese stocks dropped in today's session, as Topix fell by 0.14% or 2.07 points to 1,497.16, Nikkei 225 also fell 0.52% (106.76 points) to 20,478.53.

The Chinese stocks saw mixed performance, as the CSI 300 rose by 0.02% (0.81 points) to 3,637.14, while Shanghai Composite fell by 0.01% (0.19 points) to 2,777.37.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed 0.35% (89.77 points) to 25,886.47. South Korea's Kospi also fell 0.09% (1.77 points) to 1,915.73.

Whilst, New Zealand's NZX 50 rose by 1.27% (134.56) to 10,721.73, and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose by 0.78% (50.21 points) to 6,528.30.