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Asian stocks fall as G-20 meet leaves investors unimpressed

FILE - In this Feb. 16, 2016 file photo, a woman speaks on her phone near a display highlighting the new Chinese bank notes at a bank in Beijing, China. The Chinese economy is littered with companies that can’t pay their bills and survive only with financial help from the government. These companies and their debts pose another threat to an economy squeezed by five years of slowing growth, a free-fall in its currency and a stock market that’s sunk 20 percent this year.(AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
FILE - In this Feb. 16, 2016 file photo, a woman speaks on her phone near a display highlighting the new Chinese bank notes at a bank in Beijing, China. The Chinese economy is littered with companies that can’t pay their bills and survive only with financial help from the government. These companies and their debts pose another threat to an economy squeezed by five years of slowing growth, a free-fall in its currency and a stock market that’s sunk 20 percent this year.(AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

By Associated Press 3 min read

HONG KONG (AP) – Asian markets were searching for cues Monday after finance officials from the world’s biggest economies held a weekend meeting in China that ended without any specific pledges for joint action to stimulate sagging global economic growth.

KEEPING SCORE: Japan’s benchmark gave up early gains, slipping 1.0 percent to 16,026.76 and South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.2 percent to 1,921.98. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slid 1.3 percent to 19,105.20 while the Shanghai Composite Index tumbled 4.1 percent to 2,652.59 after Chinese officials guided the yuan sharply lower. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was almost flat at 4947.90. Benchmarks in southeast Asia were mostly lower.

SHANGHAI SUMMIT: Finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of 20 rich and developing countries promised at their meeting Saturday in Shanghai to use “all tools” at their disposal to bolster weak global growth, which is at its lowest level in two years. They also vowed not devalue their currencies to boost exports. They declared that the global economy is healthy, but also acknowledged they need to do more to boost its growth, without announcing any joint plan of action.

MARKET INSIGHT: “Following the optimism from traders on Friday ahead of the G-20 Summit, it looks like a case of the Monday morning blues after the influential group of ministers and bankers failed to come up with any concrete measures to boost growth,” said Stephen Innes, senior foreign exchange trader at OANDA.

YUAN JITTERS: Chinese authorities guided the tightly controlled yuan sharply lower on Monday morning, in a move that sent the country’s stock markets on another wild downward swing, taking the Shanghai benchmark down as much as 4.4 percent in morning trading. Central bank officials weakened the yuan by more than 114 basis points to 6.5452 to the dollar in their daily fix. Investors worry that sharp falls in China’s currency signal Beijing’s willingness to devalue the yuan further to prevent growth from slowing more than expected.