Australian shares extended their losses today as the debt issues in Euro zone continued to perplex the global stock markets. The Australian stocks joined the slump in Asian region this morning with a 1.4 per cent fall in S&P/ASX200 index at opening. Japan's Nikkei 225 shed more than 3 per cent in early trade, after the market closed for public holiday for three days.
Australian shares fell significantly this morning after the US and European markets shed on concerns over the euro zone's ability to contain its debt crisis. The S&P/ASX 200 index lost nearly 2 per cent shortly after the market opened. On economic news front, today Australian Industry Group releases performance of service index for April, while Australian Bureau of Statistics publishes building approvals data for March.
Today Australian shares continued their losing streak in early trade, despite a positive lead from Wall Street. Yesterday the Asian and Australian market declined massively on the back to credit ratings downgrades for Greece and Portugal. Australian market's decline today was led by financial shares.
The Australian shares opened higher on Tuesday despite most Asian markets dropped in early trade. Miners were boosted by stronger copper and gold prices. Most Asian markets yesterday rose as sentiment was improved after prospects of a European Union and the International Monetary Fund bailout for Greece. The Australian sharemarket was closed on Monday for a public holiday. In economic news today, the Australian Bureau of Statistics is due to unveil producer price indices (PPI) for March quarter. The National Australia Bank releases its business confidence survey for the March quarter.
Australian share dropped sharply this morning, while most Asian markets also opened lower as Greece's debt woes lingered. Thursday Japan's Nikkei shed more than 1.7 per cent in early trade, and Australia's S&P/ASX200 declined 1.1 per cent. Yesterday Asian markets were stronger as technology stocks were encouraged by solid earnings from Apple and higher commodities prices pushed up resources shares. Japan's Nikkei and South Korea's Kospi climbed 1.7 per cent each, China's Shanghai Composite climbed 1.8 per cent.
The Australian stock market opened in negative territory this morning following Wall Street's plunge on Friday. Asian markets also fell sharply Friday. Japan's Nikkei lost 1.5 per cent on stronger yen, while China's Shanghai Composite and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index lost 1.1 per cent and 1.3 per cent respectively, due to Chinese government's further move to restrict speculative property investments.
Australian shares were stronger in early trade Thursday as resources sector were boosted by expectations of a batch of positive economic data from China. The benchmark ASX200 index rose to above 5000-point territory for the first time in 19 months, following the recent rebound of the broader All Ordinaries share index. Asian markets broadly were higher today with Japan's Nikkei opened up 0.9 per cent.
