Asia Markets Mixed; Softbank Agrees to $32 Billion Takeover of ARM Holdings
Markets in Asia were mixed today. The markets opened flat or down as they reacted to Turkey's failed coup late on Friday night.
The Turkish lira was recently up 3% against the dollar at TKL2.297. The currency fell 5% on Friday against the dollar as the attempted coup unfolded.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng was closed up 0.69% at 21,809.72. In South Korea, the Kospi was 0.19% up at 2,021.11.
In Sydney, the S&P ASX 200 was up 0.53% at 5,458.50.
Markets in Japan were closed today for the Marine Day holiday.
Softbank (SFTBY) announced the £24.3 billion ($32 billion) purchase of U.K. chip maker Arm Holdings. The Japanese telecoms giant offered 1,700 per share for Arm, a 43% premium to the closing price of shares on Friday.
SofBbank's shares were unmoved due to Tokyo's closed markets.
On mainland China, the CSI 300 was down 0.44% at 3,262.02.
Data out of China show property prices in June in the country's large cities grew from a year earlier. However, fewer locations saw month-on-month price rises compared to May. Figures from the National Bureau of Statistics on property prices in large and mid-sized cities show annualized prices of new residential homes rose in 57 out of 70 cities, and increased in 55 cities from May.
Shenzhen saw 46% growth in property prices, Shanghai was up 27.7% and Beijing was up 20.3%.
Prices of new residential builders rose 7.3% year-on-year, according to Reuters' calculations based on official data.
S&P has revised its growth figures up to 6.6% growth in GDP for the year. This is up from previous estimated 6.35%. S&P is also estimating growth of 6.3% in 2017, up from 6%. However, S&P was not overly optimistic about China's economy.
"Our higher growth forecasts don't mean that we think the health of the Chinese economy has improved. Instead, it shows we overestimated the authorities' appetite for slower GDP growth as the price for improving medium-term financial stability," S&P said.
Chinese GDP grew by 6.7% in the second quarter, the same amount reported for the first quarter.
Dow Jones Industrial mini futures were recently up 0.22% and S&P mini futures were up 0.29%.
West Texas Intermediate was recently down 0.20% to $45.86 a barrel. Brent Crude was recently up 0.08% to $47.65.