Asian stocks mixed following rout on Wall Street

Asian stocks were mixed following plunges on Wall Street. ©AFP

Hong Kong (AFP) - Asian stocks were mixed on Wednesday following plunges on Wall Street fuelled by concerns for the banking sector and broader fears of recession.

Lacklustre consumer data and mixed earnings reports fed those fears during US trade, but American equities futures moved well into the green on Wednesday after promising earnings results from Microsoft and Google parent Alphabet came in after markets closed.

The operator of Hong Kong's stock exchange on Wednesday announced profits of $434 million -- a 28 percent surge year on year, and its second best quarterly revenue results ever, the bourse said in a statement.

Standard Chartered, meanwhile, reported revenues of $4.4 billion, a year-on-year increase of eight percent -- or 11 percent at constant currency.

Both it and the stock exchange saw share price bumps in generally positive Hong Kong trade, which was also bolstered by healthy gains by Tencent.

"The markets are very much focused on some of the earning story, but possibly overlooking the weight of economic deceleration that is playing through right now, particularly in the United States," John Woods, Asia Pacific chief investment officer at Credit Suisse, told Bloomberg Television.

"I'm looking at a whole range of technical signals, which seem to be suggesting a risk-off environment."

Wednesday's gains in Hong Kong offset some of the losses incurred the day before, when a selloff in Chinese firms dragged the Hang Seng down almost two percent.

The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index, which tracks such firms, appeared to have stabilised Wednesday, though it was still down from where it started the previous morning.

In addition to Hong Kong, Jakarta, Mumbai and Bangkok were up, while Shanghai and Taipei were more or less flat.

Tokyo, Sydney, Wellington, Seoul, Manila, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur were all down.

Banking fears

European stock markets also retreated at the start, with London, Frankfurt and Paris all down amid lingering worries over the health of US banks.

Those concerns were top of mind for traders after US-based First Republic disclosed it lost more than $100 billion in deposits in the first quarter, intensifying concerns about its long-term prospects after the failures of other mid-sized banks.

Shares of First Republic plunged 49 percent, pressuring other regional banks that have been seen as vulnerable.

Meanwhile, the US Conference Board reported a bigger than expected drop in consumer confidence in April, with Oanda senior market analyst Edward Moya saying in a note that consumers' "expectations signal a recession is looming".

Also weighing on sentiment was the question of interest rates, with Sweden's Riksbank on Wednesday hiking its guiding rate by a half-point to 3.5 percent as it tried to rein in double-digit inflation.

The US Federal Reserve is also mulling further inflation-fighting hikes, with Moya saying the overall outlook suggested "the Fed can stay on their tightening course with the risks of a June hike still remaining on the table".