Asian Stock Market: Prints sluggish start of 2022 despite Evergrande fears

• Asia-Pacific markets remain subdued amid holidays in major bourses.
• Market fears linked to Evergrande, Omicron add to the trading filters amid light calendar.
• Final reading of US Markit Manufacturing PMI for December will be eyed for intraday direction, US jobs report is crucial.

Asian shares portray boring year-start moves amid the holiday season in multiple markets. Also challenging the trading sentiment is the indecision over the South African covid variant, namely Omicron. Even so, Evergrande woes challenge the equity traders during early Monday.

Even as the markets are off in the region majors, namely Japan, Australia, New Zealand and China, an index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan drops 0.22% during the late Asia session on Monday.

The reason could be linked to multiple countries reporting record high covid infections but the policymakers stay hopeful citing scientific studies citing Omicron as less severe than the previous COVID-19 variants.

Further, trading of all structured products of China struggled real-estate firm Evergande is on a halt. Additionally, the firm is also instructed by China government to abolish 39 illegal residential buildings. “China Evergrande Group shares will be suspended from trading on Monday pending the release of "inside information", said the firm per Reuters.

While a holiday in Beijing restricts the market’s reaction to the news, Hong Kong’s Hang Sang drops 0.70% intraday due to the same at the latest. 

However, South Korea’s KOSPI prints mild gains on firmer prints of Nikkei Markit Manufacturing PMI for December while Indonesia’s IDX Composite rises 0.84% at the latest even as Indonesia inflation rises in December.

On a broader front, S&P 500 Futures rise 0.42% but the US Treasury yields and the US Dollar Index (DXY) stay firmer by the press time.

That said, final readings of the US Markit Manufacturing PMI for December may offer immediate direction to markets. However, major attention will be given to Wednesday’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) Meeting Minutes and Friday’s US Nonfarm Payrolls (NFP).