BANGKOK -- Shares fell Monday in Asia and the price of bitcoin sank as traders braced for an interest rate hike by the Bank of Japan, expected later in the week.Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index shed 1.3% to 50,168.11 after a quarterly “tankan” survey of big manufacturers by the central bank showed a slight improvement in sentiment among such businesses.
The measure of those expressing optimism rose to 15 from 14 in the last quarter, the highest level in four years, the central bank said.The index shows the percentage of companies reporting positive conditions minus the percentage reporting unfavorable ones.While the overall survey showed improvement, forecasts for the next quarter were less positive.Japan’s economy contracted at a 2.3% annual pace in the July-September quarter, the first such decline in six quarters.
But an agreement between Japan and the U.S.over the level of President Donald Trump’s higher tariffs, limiting baseline import duties to 15%, has helped to reduce uncertainty for big automakers and electronics companies.
The positive results from the BOJ survey reinforced the belief it will push ahead with a 0.25 percentage point rate hike that will take the key lending rate to 0.75%.Higher rates are expected to draw investment back into Japan, sapping demand for alternatives such as cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin's price slipped below $88,000 early Monday from about $92,000, according to CoinDesk.It recovered to just over $90,000 later in the day.
Elsewhere in Asia, Chinese markets fell after the government reported weak investment figures in the latest signal that demand in the world's second largest economy remains weak.The government reported that investment in fixed assets such as factory equipment and other infrastructure fell 2.6% in November from a year earlier, implying that such investments dropped 11.1% year-on-year in the first 11 months of the year.Retail sales rose 4% in January-November from a year earlier, while factory output climbed...