Japanese Markets Sustain Heavy Losses

A broadly negative session for equity markets in the Asia-Pac time zone, pressured by weak Chinese data and concerns over the delta variant with COVID-19 case numbers still elevated. There could also be some caution after Afghanistan fell to insurgents with the President fleeing the country. In China the PBOC let CNY 100bn of MLF funds mature, rolling over CNY 600bn. Chinese data was weak with industrial production, retail sales and FAI all missing estimates; indices on mainland China though are proving resilient and have managed to reclaim positive territory. Japan extended the state of emergency to mid-Sept, but earlier in the session data showed GDP was robust and came in well above estimates. Markets in Japan are the laggards, down approximately 1.8%. In the US futures are lower by around 0.3%; US bourses hit another fresh record high on Friday.