Asian markets plunge on China's property market cooling measures

Asian equity markets closed mostly lower on the first Monday of March. Hong Kong's Hang Seng (-1.63%), South Korea's Kospi (-0.66%) and China's Shanghai Composite (-3.65%) are good examples of Asian reaction to China's fresh property market cooling measures. “China’s State Council has given local governments greater powers to cool the property sector in their own cities, including by raising taxes on profits on sales of second homes and increasing required mortgage down payments/interest rates, also for second homes”, wrote TD Securities analyst Alvin Pontoh.

The only index moving the other way was Japan's Nikkei Stock Average, up by +0.40% on dovish comments by BOJ Governor-nominee Kuroda.

Futures for the German DAX 30 and the French CAC 40 are signaling a lower opening by -0.85% ahead of Spain unemployment rate and EMU PPI and Sentix Investor Confidence data.