Asian Markets Fall As Investors Remain Cautious

Asian markets fell Monday as investors remained watchful having concerns about the revival of the global economic growth in spite of the stimulus measures announced last month by policy maker in the U.S. and Europe.

The Chinese Shanghai Composite fell 0.53 percent or 11.02 points to 2075.15. Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down 0.70 percent or 146.29 points to 20866.09. Among the major losers were COSCO Pacific Ltd (2.18 percent) and PetroChina Co Ltd (1.98 percent).

South Korea’s KOSPI Composite Index dropped 0.68 percent or 13.65 points to 1981.52. Shares of Samsung Electronics Co Ltd fell 0.22 percent and those of LG Electronics Inc declined 0.43 percent.

India's BSE Sensex fell 0.22 percent or 41.12 points to 18897.34 flat. Among the major losers were DLF Ltd (3.04 percent), Muthoot Finance (3.02 percent) and UCO Bank (2.32 percent).

In Japan, markets are closed Monday for holiday.

The continuing debt crisis in Europe and the tentative U.S. recovery have hurt the market sentiment. In spite of the fact that major central banks around the world have announced monetary easing measures to bolster global economic growth, market participants worry that these steps will not be sufficient to lift up the weak economies.

Also investors are having concerns as the earning season commences in the U.S. Tuesday with Alcoa Inc announcing its quarterly report.

“As far as the third quarter specifically is concerned, even allowing for a modest rebound in capital goods shipments in September, it looks like business investment in equipment and software contracted slightly, for the first time since the recession ended in mid-2009,” Capital Economics said in a note.

Meanwhile, China's services activity growth rose in September after the fall in August according to the HSBC Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) released Monday. The services PMI rose to 54.3 in September up from 52 in August, indicating improvement in the business activity.

The index continues to remain in the area of expansion since the reading is above 50. Also the rise in the reading would decrease fears of the likelihood of a sharp slowdown in the economy.