Asian markets closed lower on Friday, November 14, the final trading day of the week, as Wall Street’s sharp decline on Thursday, weighed on trading. The technology sector was particularly affected, while Chinese economic data dominated the Asian session.

Figures released this morning showed that retail sales in China rose 2.9% year-on-year in October, compared to 3.0% in September. This exceeded expectations of a 2.7% increase, marking the fifth consecutive month of slowdown and the longest such streak since 2021.

Meanwhile, Chinese industrial production rose 4.9% year-on-year in October, compared to 6.5% in September. This fell short of expectations of 5.5% and represents the smallest increase since the beginning of the year. Fixed asset investment contracted by 1.7% in the first ten months of the year, marking its fifth consecutive month of decline. Meanwhile, the urban unemployment rate fell to 5.1% from 5.2% in September.

The Nikkei index closed at 50,376 points, down 1.77% or 905 points, but still posted a slight weekly gain of 0.2%. The Topix index of the Tokyo Stock Exchange also declined, falling approximately 0.65% to close at 3,359, though it recorded a weekly gain of 1.85%. EBARA Group led the Nikkei’s losses, with its shares falling by more than 13%.

SoftBank shares fell more than 9% for the third consecutive session after the company announced the sale of its stake in chipmaker Nvidia for $5.83 billion.

Chinese indices declined in today’s closing session, with the broader CSI 300 index falling by approximately 1.57% to close at 4,628 points, while the Shanghai Composite Index closed down 0.97% at 3,990 points.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell by about 1.78% to close at 26,590 points, with Baidu leading the declines with losses exceeding 7%.

Meanwhile, South Korea’s Kospi index fell by approximately 3.81% to close at 4,011 points. The Indian Sensex index fell by approximately 0.25% before closing at 84,268, while the Nifty50 index declined by about 0.49%, trading at 25,751 points.

Australian stock markets closed lower today, with the ASX200 index falling by approximately 1.36% to close at 8,634 points. The New Zealand NZX50 index also declined by about 0.98%, closing at 13,464, and Singapore’s benchmark index fell by 0.98% in pre-closing trading.ش