March 13, 2023 (MLN): Asian stock markets experienced a dip on Monday morning in the wake of the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. However, the fall in some cases was short-lived, with Chinese technology stocks rallying immediately.
Indexes in Japan, Southeast Asia, and Australia were lower, with Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 down 1.7% and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 losing around 0.5% of its value.
This follows five consecutive weeks of losses, the longest such streak since 2016. Xero, the only tech stock in the Australian index to have commented on the Silicon Valley Bank collapse, reported a $5 million exposure. Initially, Xero fell but recovered to be slightly up by mid-morning.
However, Chinese companies rose on both the mainland and Hong Kong stock exchanges. Hong Kong's benchmark Hang Seng Index, which is heavily weighted towards banks and technology companies, was up 1.5%. The mainland CSI 300 index was 0.5% higher.
The Hong Kong-listed shares of internet companies Alibaba, Baidu, and Tencent rose more than 3%, while video platform Bilibili was up more than 11%.
South Korea's Kospi index also started the day down, but it soon recovered to be around flat on the day.
Overall, the falls in some Asian stock markets were short-lived, while Chinese technology stocks rallied, potentially indicating a more optimistic outlook for the sector.
