Asian stocks drift lower, better China data dump ignored

Most major Asian indices erased early gains and turned back in the red, as sentiment soured amid renewed weakness seen around oil prices, which crushed investors’ appetite for risk once again.

Moreover, Fed Governor Brainard’s more dovish comments-led rally in the Asian stocks quickly faded, as markets prefer to remain on the back foot amid increased volatility in the markets and uncertainty over Fed’s interest rate outlook. While upbeat Chinese data releases failed to lift the sentiment around the region’s indices.

Meanwhile, the Japanese benchmark index, the Nikkei 225 trades almost unchanged at 16,675. The Australian S&P/ASX 200 gains +0.35% to 5,238 points.

The Chinese equities trade in the red; with the benchmark Shanghai Composite index declining -0.18%, the CSI300 index loses -0.13%. While Hong Kong markets bounces +1.20% to 23,570 points, after having witnessed the biggest drop since February a day before.