Tokyo stocks end lower Monday on stronger yen: analyst

Tokyo stocks ended lower Monday, with the benchmark 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average falling around 1 percent, amid concern that the surging yen could disrupt companies' business outlooks, said an analyst.

The benchmark Nikkei stock index, the 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average, ended down 607.12 points, or 0.94 percent, from Friday at 63,754.90.

The broader Topix index, meanwhile, finished 43.27 points, or 1.08 percent, lower at 3,960.03.

The Japanese yen rose sharply on Monday, briefly surging to the lower 155 yen range against the U.S. dollar, after Japan confirmed joint currency market intervention with the United States and possible further intervention.

The U.S. dollar fetched 156.76-78 yen after briefly hitting 155.20 yen, compared with 157.33-43 yen in New York and 160.20-22 yen in Tokyo at 17:00 local time Friday.

"Over in Tokyo, the big story was of course the rare joint action by Japan and the U.S. to support the yen, which had been trading near 40-year lows in recent weeks. Japan's finance ministry confirmed that coordinated intervention today and said the two countries are prepared to act on that again. The yen rose as much as 1.4 percent at one stage and the Nikkei 225 fell around 1 percent. The stronger currency was weighing on exporters. There we had Suzuki Motor down 6.7 percent. Many Japanese-listed companies earn a substantial share of their revenues overseas, and a stronger yen reduces the value of those earnings when they are translated back into the Japanese currency. AI-linked stocks also weighed on the market, with the chip-testing-equipment maker Advantest down 3.3 percent," said Timothy Pope, a Shanghai-based market analyst for China Global Television Network (CGTN).

Pope said that in the rest of the week, investors are going to watch closely the earning reports to be released by the major companies.

"Tokyo has some major earnings to watch this week as well. So, we will be following Toyota, Nintendo and SoftBank -- all of them are due to report. SoftBank's results will be watched particularly closely for further clues about the returns, the risks as well as all of those associated with the enormous sums being invested in AI at the moment," said Pope.

Tokyo stocks end lower Monday on stronger yen: analyst

Hong Kong stocks closed higher Monday, with Alibaba leading gains after unveiling a new AI model, even as broader Asian markets saw a selloff, said Timothy Pope, a market analyst for China Global Television Network (CGTN).

The benchmark Hang Seng Index rose 0.48 percent to close at 26,009.40 points. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index gained 0.46 percent to 8,652.15, while the Hang Seng Tech Index climbed 0.96 percent to 4,875.61.

"Hong Kong dodged the losses that were felt more keenly around much of the rest of the region. The Hang Seng [Index] gained 0.5 percent. Alibaba shares were a big part of that. They hit a two-month high during the session and closed about 7 percent higher after the company unveiled its latest AI model - part of a growing wave of these powerful Chinese models that have been released with open weights. The new Qwen3.8-Max is one of the largest models yet released, well, unveiled, it hasn't quite been released yet. It's got about 2.4 trillion parameters and it's quickly becoming one of the highest-ranked Chinese models out there by a number of metrics. That allowed Alibaba to buck the wider selloff in AI-related shares today. The model itself is due for release through Alibaba Cloud next week," said Pope.

Five-year RMB treasury bond futures debuted at the Hong Kong bourse on Monday, marking the first RMB treasury bond futures contract traded in the offshore market.

The product is expected to complement Bond Connect and Swap Connect by providing international investors with an effective offshore hedging tool to meet their growing need for managing government bond-related risks.

"Hong Kong also saw the trading debut of the offshore futures contracts based on Chinese government bonds today, the first of their kind. The five-year contract gives international investors another way to hedge interest-rate risks on their mainland government-bond holdings, complementing the Bond Connect and the Swap Connect programs," said Pope.

Hong Kong shares rise amid wide regional stock selloffs: analyst