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Asia-Pacific’s leading index erased its year-to-date gains and is now flat in 2023 as bank stocks led declines Tuesday.
The MSCI Asia Pacific index hit a low of 155.44 in afternoon trade – marking a decline of more than a 9% from its Feb. 2 high of 171.26 and wiping out its gains for the year so far. The index closed at 155.74 on the last trading day of 2022.
In January, the index entered a bull market during the second trading week of the year, fueled by optimism from China’s reopening.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan meanwhile traded 1.47% lower Tuesday afternoon, also marking new lows for the year. Last month, traders saw room for the index to rally further despite near-term volatility.
Markets continued to see sharp losses Tuesday on concerns of a spillover effect from Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse, even after U.S. regulators stepped in to protect depositors over the weekend.
“Concerns of a global economic rout continue to put pressure on the region, which are more value-focused,” IG analyst Yeap Jun Rong said in a Tuesday note.
On Tuesday, bank stocks in Japan declined sharply, weighing on the wider Topix, which led the sell-off in Asia-Pacific. The index closed 2.7% lower as financials dipped 4.65%, Refinitiv data showed.
Tokyo-listed shares of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group fell 8.59%, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group shed 7.57% and Mizuho Financial Group dropped 7.14%. Technology giant SoftBank Group also saw losses of more than 4%.
Yeap also noted indexes such as the Straits Times Index in Singapore has close to 45% of its weightage in bank stocks. Shares of DBS, United Overseas Bank and Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation led declines Tuesday.
On Monday, the Monetary Authority of Singapore said its exposure to failed U.S. banks was “insignificant.”
“Banks in Singapore are well-capitalized and conduct regular stress tests against interest rate and other risks,” it said, adding that their…
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