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New Jersey. — Asian equities closed mostly in the red yesterday as investors remained cautious following a mixed performance from Wall Street last Friday.

US stocks closed mixed on Friday due to a 3 percent decline in oil prices. Oil tumbled $1,33, or 3,09 percent, to $41,71 a barrel as the dollar index, which hit a fresh eight-month high, added additional pressure to an oversupplied market.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 15 points, or 0,08 percent, lower at 17 798,5 while the S&P 500 was up by 1,24 points, or 0,06 percent, to 2 090. The Nasdaq was up 11,4 points, or 0,22 percent, at 5 128.

The Shanghai Composite rallied late afternoon to close 9,3 points, or 0,27 percent, higher at 3 445 as investors continue to remain concerned over the ongoing investigations of Chinese brokerages by regulators.

Last week, the China Securities and Regulatory Commission formally launched investigations into brokerages to weed out short selling and speculation, which saw the stock market register its worst weekly performance since August (103200048) after a massive sell-off on Friday.

Brokerages pared back most of their morning losses and closed mixed. Shares of Citic Securities closed 1,51 percent lower; China Merchants was down 0,2 percent, while Founder Securities ticked back into the green, closing 3,27 percent higher. Haitong Securities, which saw the biggest plunge in its shares after trading resumed yesterday, closed near 9 percent lower.

Chinese banks were all trading in positive territory, boosted by the news of the likely inclusion of the yuan into the Special Drawing Rights (SDR) basket of currencies by International Monetary Fund (IMF). It would make the yuan an officially recognised reserve currency.

Shares of ICBC, Agriculture Bank of China, Bank of China CCB, and Bank of Commerce were up between 0,64 and 3,8 percent.

Evan Lucas, market strategist at spread-better IG, said in a note that investors will be watching a build-up of yuan devaluation again.

“Friday’s intra-day collapse on the Chinese markets has been put down to the investigations into ‘margin financing and short selling’ at the three largest brokerage firms in China,” he wrote. “However, the fact that price action went global (Chinese ADRs were punished on the weekend) suggests something bigger — this could be the next leg of the July — August move.”

The smaller Shenzhen Composite was up 0.9 percent; the tech-heavy Chinext was up 1.4 percent; and the blue chip-heavy CSI 300 Index was up 0,26 percent.

Away from the mainland, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index traded higher at 0,25 percent while Taiwan’s Taiex closed 0,93 percent below the line.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 continued losing ground and finished 137 points, or 0,69 percent, lower at 19 748, as investors remained unconvinced by the new set of data released in the morning.

Japan’s October industrial production was up 1,4 percent from the previous month while retail sales rose 1,8 percent for the month, year-on-year, despite anaemic domestic spending.

Harumi Taguchi, principal economist at IHS GlobalInsight, said in a note yesterday afternoon that despite an up-tick in monthly-industrial production, due to increases in machinery and transportation equipment, the overall level will likely remain weak near term, “until-demand strengthens, which will encourage companies to invest in machinery and equipment.”

She added: “The industrial outlook suggests a growth of only 0,2 percent for November due to downside revisions to the majority of industry groupings, particularly for capital and non-durable consumer goods and a decline of 0,9 percent for December.”

Kospi closes near 2 percent lower

The Seoul Kospi closed down 1,82 percent yesterday, as investors remain cautious over Asian equities.

Blue chip and tech companies were mostly down on the back of a surprise decline in industrial output for October. Industrial output fell 1,4 percent from the previous month as manufacturing lagged.

Shares of consumer electronics giant Samsung, LG Electronics steel manufacturer Posco, and KB Financial Group, SK Hynix, and Hyundai Motor were down, seeing between 1,17 and 3,24 percent declines.

Elsewhere, shares of Kakao Corp and KT Corp rallied after a consortium led by the two companies won a preliminary license from the Financial Services Commission (FSC) to launch South Korea’s first internet-only bank, according to reports. — CNBC.