Waterfront city skyline of Sydney city downtown at night with bright illumination of modern architectural landmarks in Sydney, Australia.
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Australian stocks fell Monday after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese returned to power, while most Asian markets were closed for holidays.
Albanese is the country’s first prime minister to clinch a second consecutive term in 21 years, indicating Australians’ desire for policy continuity amid an uncertain global macroeconomic outlook.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 ended the day 0.97% lower at 8,157.80. This is a reversal from the sharp gains in its previous session, when the index hit its highest level since Feb. 27.
Taiwan’s benchmark Taiex plunged 1.23% in choppy trade to close at 20,532.99.
In India, the benchmark Nifty 50 added 0.44% while the BSE Sensex advanced 0.32%.
Representatives for Indian billionaire Gautam Adani and his companies reportedly met with officials from U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration to discuss the dismissal of the criminal charges levied against him in an overseas bribery probe, Bloomberg reported.
The talks which began earlier this year have picked up speed in recent weeks and could lead to a resolution in the coming month or so if the pace continues, the report added.
Shares of Adani Green surged 9.56% while Adani Power soared 9.48%. The flagship Adani Enterprises shares rose 7.73%, while Adani Port gained 7.77% and Adani Energy advanced 5.93%.
Mark Mobius, chairman of Mobius Emerging Opportunities Fund, said that India was receiving the “biggest love” for investments.
“That’s the country that is going to be continuing to do very well going forward, not only because of the movement of manufacturing from China, but more importantly, what is happening domestically,” he told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Monday.
“That’s the country that is going to be continuing to do very well going forward, not only because of the movement of manufacturing from China, but more importantly, what is happening domestically,” Mobius added.
He also highlighted India’s young population that is “grasping the technology that we’ve see around the world,” as an exciting area to watch.
Beyond India, the veteran investor outlined Brazil, Vietnam and Taiwan as promising markets in the region.
Elsewhere in the region, Indonesia’s economy expanded 4.87% year on year in the first quarter, lower than the 5.02% growth seen in the previous quarter, government data showed. This is the slowest pace of growth since the third quarter of 2021, and falls short of 4.91% penciled in by economists polled by Reuters.
Japanese, South Korean, Hong Kong and mainland China markets were closed for public holidays.
Currencies rally
Asia-Pacific currencies appreciated Monday, as the U.S. dollar weakened.
The offshore Chinese yuan strengthened marginally against the dollar to 7.2081, after hitting its strongest level since November 2024 earlier in the session.
The Taiwanese dollar continued to strengthen, appreciating 2.81% against the greenback to 29.845, hitting its strongest level in nearly three years.
The Australian dollar appreciated by 0.36% against the greenback to trade at 0.6466. Similarly, the Singapore dollar strengthened by 0.35% to 1.2926 against the greenback after the ruling People’s Action Party secured a strong mandate.
The Japanese yen, which had weakened last week, appreciated 0.37% against the U.S. dollar to trade at 144.39, while the Indian rupee strengthened 0.3% against the greenback to 84.2425.
Oil and U.S. futures down
Oil prices plunged after OPEC+ agreed to raise production for a second month. Brent crude was last down 2.64% at $59.67 a barrel, while the West Texas Intermediate crude fell 3.04% to $56.52 per barrel.
U.S. futures edged down, reversing course from strong wins in Wall Street last week.
The broad-based S&P 500 ended Friday’s session 1.47% higher at 5,686.67. This marked its ninth consecutive day of gains and is its longest winning run since November 2004. The benchmark also managed to recover all losses incurred since April 2, when U.S. President Donald Trump announced retaliatory tariffs.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 564.47 points, or 1.39%, to end at 41,317.43, and the Nasdaq Composite gained 1.51% to 17,977.73.
— CNBC’s Neha Hegde, Sean Conlon and Hakyung Kim contributed to this report.
Read More: Asia markets live: Australia markets fall