Asian shares mixed after last week’s gains on Wall Street

Shares were trading mixed in Asia on Monday after Wall Street benchmarks closed higher on Friday, capping a third week of gains out of the last four, the AP reported.
Tokyo was nearly unchanged, Mumbai and Shanghai rose while Hong Kong, Seoul and Sydney fell.
Attention is turning to Wednesday’s decision by the Federal Reserve on interest rates. A report Friday showed that U.S. inflation is continuing to cool, raising hopes for a smaller increase that’s less painful than last year’s aggressive hikes. The measure the Fed prefers, which doesn’t count food and energy costs, was 4.4% higher in December than a year earlier. That was down from 4.7% inflation in November.
Reports that holiday travel during last week’s Lunar New Year festivities was nearly back to normal raised expectations that China’s economy may regain momentum faster than anticipated after it relaxed pandemic restrictions late last year.
In the first trading session after a weeklong break, the Shanghai Composite index gained 0.7% to 3,288.38. However, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 1.6% on heavy selling of technology shares. E-commerce giant Alibaba sank 5.7% following reports it is building a facility in Singapore that some speculated could become its global headquarters.
The Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post reported that the company had denied it was planning such a change, saying the new campus in Singapore will house regional operations with partners like Lazada. Alibaba is headquartered in the east Chinese city of Hangzhou.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 lost less than 2 points to 27,381.75. South Korea’s Kospi lost 1.3% to 2,451.90 and the S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney was down less than 2 points at 7,492.00.
India’s Sensex gained 0.3% and Bangkok’s SET edged 0.1% lower.
Shares in some companies in the Adani Group recovered some lost ground after recent massive losses after U.S. short-selling firm Hindenburg Research published a report alleging major problems within India’s second-largest conglomerate, which has holdings in energy, data transmission, construction and other major industries.
Its flagship, Adani Enterprises, gained 6.3% and the Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone Ltd. added 3.3%. But shares in other Adani listed companies fell between 5% to 20%.
The Adani Group said it was considering legal action against Hindenburg following its allegations of stock market manipulation and accounting fraud.
On Friday, the S&P 500 rose 0.2% to 4,070.56. It’s rallied through January on growing belief inflation is on a steady downswing, hopefully relieving pressure on the economy and markets.