The dollar, however, tumbled against the Japanese yen as investors
sought shelter from the fall in equities, which saw Chinese stocks
lose nearly 3 percent. Gold, another "safe haven", rose and was on
track for its best month in four years.
G20 finance ministers and central bankers, meeting in Shanghai on
Friday and Saturday, agreed to use "all policy tools – monetary,
fiscal and structural – individually and collectively" to reach the
group's economic goals.
But there was no plan for coordinated stimulus, which some investors
had been seeking after concerns about a slowdown in China depressed
markets at the beginning of 2016.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index fell 1 percent and Germany's
DAX was down 1.5 percent.
Britain's FTSE 100 index lost 0.8 percent.
"Markets looked at the G20 meeting and found it a tad disappointing,
what they had been looking for was a unification of the G20 to do
something as a force," said Peter Lowman, CIO of Investment Quorum,
a London-based wealth management firm.
REAL ESTATE
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dipped
0.6 percent and appeared likely to post its second consecutive month
of losses, with a 1.2 percent drop so far this month.
Chinese shares closed at one-month lows. The CSI300 index of the
largest listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen, closed down 2.5
percent while the Shanghai Composite index fell 2.9 percent on
concern rising real estate prices would see funds withdrawn from
shares.
Tokyo's Nikkei lost 1 percent as the yen gained, making life more
difficult for Japanese exporters, and on China worries.
The yen gained 1 percent to 112.90 per dollar. The euro dipped 0.1
percent to $1.0922.
The dollar fell 0.1 percent against a basket of its peers, having
gained on Friday after upbeat U.S. data showing the U.S. economy
grew faster than previously thought in the last quarter of 2015.
That revived expectations U.S. interest rates could rise again this
year. Any 2016 hike had been priced out of markets but federal funds
futures implied an around 50 percent chance of a rise in December.
Sterling , which took a hit last week on worries Britons could vote
to leave the European Union in a June referendum, was steady at
$1.3876.
[to top of second column] |
Weaker stocks helped raised investor appetite for low-risk
government debt. U.S. 10-year Treasuries yielded 1.75 percent,
compared with 1.77 percent in New York on Friday.
German 10-year Bund yields fell nearly 3 basis points to 0.12
percent and British gilt yields fell 5 bps to 1.36 percent.
Bund traders were looking to preliminary euro zone inflation data
for clues to possible further stimulus from the European Central
Bank.
FLASH INFLATION
"Today's prospective decline in the HICP flash estimate comes with
downside risks given Friday's country releases," Commerzbank
analysts Rainer Guntermann said. "Speculation about bolder ECB
measures... could unfold."
Oil prices edged up as some in markets said a fall, which has seen
crude lose some 70 percent since mid-2014, may have reached a
bottom. Data on Friday showed a fall in the number of U.S. shale oil
rigs in production.
Brent crude rose 17 cents a barrel to $35.27. It is up 18
percent since Feb. 11, the last day on which it dipped below $30.
Gold gained 0.7 percent to $1,230 per ounce and has risen 10 percent
so far this month, its best performance in four years.
(Additional reporting by Hideyuki Sano in Tokyo, Henning Gloystein
in Singapore, Sujata Rao, John Geddie and Patrick Graham in London;
Editing by Janet Lawrence)
[© 2016 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2016 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
|