How Asian stock markets work + online quotes

If you like to bet on football and are unhappy with the conditions of famous bookmakers, you should pay attention to the betting market in Asia. Although football is the most popular European game, the market size and quality of service in the region is in no way inferior to, and often exceeds, European ones.

How to do it? You can open an account with a bookmaker directly, but not all of them allow you to do this quickly and legally. There is a more convenient alternative: contact a broker. One such option is to use the services of Asian Connect.

Asian Connect is a bookmaker broker serving the Asian betting market. The company acts as an intermediary between players and bookmakers and allows them to bet more efficiently.

Asian Connect began operations in 2006 and has over time become one of the largest brokers operating in the Asian market. Its partners include well-known bookmakers such as SBObet, Pinnacle sports, Maxbet, BetISN, Singbet, Matchbook and GA288.

The broker's main specialization is betting on football, both pre-match and live. A large selection of bookmakers allows you to place large bets on both small and major football leagues. The largest markets are represented by European football leagues: English, Spanish, Italian and German.

What are these trading platforms?

Below is a small comparative table regarding the main online exchanges in the Asian region.

Separate articles are devoted to a more detailed description of each of the online trading platforms.

Where can I see quotes from these exchanges online?

You can view all current quotes on the above-mentioned trading platforms using our widget.

Courtesy of Investing.com

Almost all Asian stock markets fell

Stock indices in the Asia-Pacific region mostly fell in trading on Thursday following negative dynamics in the American stock market amid the lack of progress in agreeing on a new package of measures to support the US economy.

Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin plan to once again discuss a draft of new economic incentives on Thursday, while Senate Republicans continue to oppose the scope of the measures being discussed, Bloomberg writes.

Both sides believe that the vote will take place after the presidential elections. At the same time, economic adviser to US President Larry Kudlow believes that the economy and markets will benefit from the announcement of the deal in the next two weeks.

“Optimism surrounding the fiscal stimulus deal has faded,” Mizuho Bank said in a report.

Markets were also weighed down by US intelligence director John Ratcliffe's announcement that Russia and Iran had taken steps to try to influence the US presidential election.

The US elections will take place on November 3. Republican Trump and Democratic candidate Joe Biden are fighting for the presidency. In addition, on this day the Americans will have to elect all members of the House of Representatives and some senators.

READ ALSO: ANALYSIS - A story of two post-crisis transitions: this time the Fed needs full employment, and everything is different From Reuters

Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund on Wednesday lowered its forecast for Asia-Pacific economies to contract this year to 2.2% from 1.6% forecast in June, saying it would be the region's "worst performance in living memory." Growth is expected to be 6.9% in 2021, down from 6.6%.

The Japanese Nikkei 225 index fell by 0.7% at the end of trading.

The biggest losers were shares of ANA Holdings Inc., which fell 4.1% on news that the company could suffer multibillion-dollar losses for the fiscal year ending in March. Japan Airlines Co. stock price decreased by 2.2%.

Papers of investment and technology SoftBank Group Corp. remained virtually unchanged in price, while shares of Asia's largest clothing retailer Fast Retailing Co. rose by 0.4%. Capitalization of consumer electronics manufacturer Sony Corp. decreased by 1%.

China's Shanghai Composite index fell 0.38%, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rose 0.13%.

Shares of casino operators Sands China and Galaxy Entertainment Group rose more than 5% in Hong Kong trading, being among the top gainers.

READ ALSO: The Moscow Exchange stock market as of 16:00 Moscow time on October 1 is moving in different directions

The most significant losses were suffered by the shares of telecommunications companies China Unicom and China Mobile, which fell in price by 11.5% and 2.7%, respectively, as well as oil producer CNOOC, whose price fell 2.7%. Share quotes of Internet giant Tencent Holdings Ltd. fell by 0.5%.

Ping An Bank's market value decreased by 2%. The bank reported a 6.1% rise in net profit in the third quarter, driven by higher net interest income and bank fees and commissions. However, net profit fell 5.2% in January-September, partly due to the negative impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

South Korea's Kospi index fell 0.67%.

Capitalization of one of the world's largest manufacturers of electronic devices Samsung (KS:005930) Electronics Co. decreased by 1.3%. Papers of the automaker Kia Motors Corp. fell in price by 0.6%, Hyundai Motor Co. - by 1.8%.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index lost 0.29%.

Shares of the world's largest mining companies BHP Group and Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) each added about 1%.

Quotes of securities of the four largest banks in the country - National Australia Bank, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Westpac Banking Corp. and Australia & New Zealand Banking Group each lost 0.5%.

Advantages and disadvantages of the Asian trading session

First of all, it is worth noting the low spread for currency pairs and a narrow price movement corridor, which allows you to engage in scalping relatively safely, you just need to choose the most liquid assets.

During the Asian session, the global market is not very active, but, in addition to currencies, you can trade securities of large companies that are listed only on Asian exchanges.

Quotes of stocks, bonds and stock indices are now also quite stable and have high liquidity. This means that there are many good trading tools available in the Asian online market.

However, breakouts of narrow sideways still happen: this can happen due to the news background or after a long consolidation. Breakout strategies should be used when other markets are actively moving, especially American ones, since trading in the US closes right before the start of online trading in Asia.

The volatility of most currency pairs is very small, so to earn more money you have to use leverage, which increases the risks significantly.

The low liquidity of many assets, due to the fact that other regions are asleep during trading in Asia, is also a disadvantage of this online market.

Asian equity markets decline as hopes for a quick economic recovery fade

Stock indexes across the Asia-Pacific region fell in trading on Thursday amid doubts that life will quickly return to normal after the coronavirus pandemic, even despite news of a planned easing of the state of emergency in some parts of Japan.

According to analysts, the markets were negatively affected by comments from the head of the US Federal Reserve System (FRS), Jerome Powell, which raised concerns about the risk of bankruptcies of US companies and job losses.

“Running recovery remains the theme this week,” said Stephen Innes, chief market analyst at AxiCorp, as quoted by MarketWatch. He does not rule out a second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic if quarantine measures are eased too quickly in any part of the world.

Powell said U.S. authorities will need to spend more resources to ensure their swift action in response to the coronavirus crisis is not in vain.

“The scale and speed of the current economic downturn is unprecedented and substantially worse than any recession seen since World War II,” Powell said during a speech at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

The U.S. economic recovery will be gradual, he said, and the government making more aid for homeowners and businesses is justified if it wants to avoid long-term damage to the economy.

The Japanese government plans to lift the state of emergency from 39 of 47 prefectures, NHK TV channel reports.

The Nikkei 225 index fell by 1.26% by 8:24 Moscow time.

Share prices of telecommunications company SoftBank Group Corp. decrease by 2.4%. Toyota Motor shares are also falling in price - by 1.9%.

Shares of electronics manufacturer Sony are down 3.1%. The company saw its operating profit fall 57% in its fiscal fourth quarter amid the coronavirus outbreak.

China's Shanghai Composite index fell by 0.76% by 8:29 Moscow time, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 1.34%.

The market value of Internet giant Tencent Holdings grows by 0.5% during trading in Hong Kong.

Tencent reported better-than-expected first-quarter profit thanks to strong performance in its gaming business. Revenue in the online gaming segment jumped 31% year on year to 37.3 billion yuan. Total revenue from smartphone games was 34.7 billion yuan.

Meanwhile, shares of telecom company China Mobile and bank HSBC each lost 1.3%.

In addition, the price of shares of oil producers is declining, including CNOOC - by 1.9% and PetroChina - by 2.3%.

The South Korean Kospi index fell by 1.03% by 8:25 Moscow time.

Capitalization of one of the world's largest chip manufacturers Samsung Electronics Co. decreased by 1.5%. Consumer electronics maker LG Electronics fell 1.8% and automaker Hyundai Motor dropped 1.5%.

The Australian S&P/ASX 200 index fell by 1.16% by 8:25 Moscow time.

The market value of the world's leading mining companies BHP and Rio Tinto decreased by 1.1% and 0.4% respectively.

Shares of oil producers also fell in price, including Santos - by 3.4%, Beach Energy - by 5.4% and Woodside Petroleum - by 2.6%.

Opening hours of the Asian trading session

The Asian online trading session is determined by three main trading platforms:

• in Tokyo;
• in Singapore;
• in Hong Kong.

It starts at 3 a.m. Moscow time and ends at 12:00.

Today, many brokers combine the Asian online trading session with the Pacific one, since they are almost the same in time.

In terms of overlap with other key online trading sessions, America has just finished trading at this time and does not overlap with Asia, while Europe begins trading 3 hours before the Asian stock markets close.

Stock market assets

The Asian stock market trades shares of all major companies and banks that everyone has probably heard of: Samsung, LG, Sony, Nissan, Toyota, Hyundai and many others. In addition to them, bonds, derivatives (futures/options), commodities and, naturally, national currencies are traded online.

Currency pairs

First of all, this is the Japanese yen JPY, which is the top 3 currency in terms of trading volume around the world, followed by the Chinese yuan CNY. No less active currencies are the Australian, New Zealand and Singapore dollars (AUD, NZD, SGD).

Trades are against the US dollar or euro, as well as against each other (AUD/JPY). Pairs such as USD/EUR, USD or EUR to other American or European currencies are low liquidity and low volatility during the Asian online trading session.

Deposits and withdrawals

Asian Connect offers the most popular deposit and withdrawal methods: from a simple bank transfer to Skrill and Neteller, popular in the poker world. In all cases, except for the ecoPayz e-wallet, the deposit is made instantly and without commissions.

Deposits

The minimum deposit for any payment system is 10 euros. To place bets through the AsianOdds aggregator, you need to have 100 euros in your account, and the minimum deposit for betting via Skype is 150 euros.

Withdrawal of funds

The broker offers free withdrawals to a bank account and pays a commission once a month when using Skrill and Neteller. The commission for each subsequent withdrawal within a month is 1%.

Features of trading during the Asian trading session

Useful articles

Secret Japanese index TOPIX: where to find its quotes and how it differs from Nikkei

How much can you earn on Sony shares: online quotes and prospects for the Japanese brand

What is TSE: features of the Tokyo Stock Exchange and prospects for Japan

Why Nikkei 225 is so popular: online index quotes chart and Japan's prospects

The Asian online trading session begins on Monday morning, meaning this region opens trading first. This allows traders to speculate on gaps - gaps in stock prices, indices and currencies that occurred over the weekend. During the break, many political, economic and other events can occur that can seriously affect rates.

All traders try to predict the trend emerging over the weekend and actively trade online on the stock exchange, as a result of which trading volumes are the highest in the first hours after the market opens on Monday.

On other days of the week, the Asian stock market is not as active, and the peak trading volume is observed from 9:00 to 12:00 Moscow time, when the European trading session opens.

Since the economy of almost all Asian countries is export-oriented, the main participants in the online market are large export corporations and Central Banks, which actively buy and sell currencies.

Volatility of pairs during the active Asian session

The Asian online market is known for its low volatility, which cannot be said about the American market, for example. Quotes can remain almost unchanged for many weeks. Traders can only analyze the emerging trend, open long or short positions and wait for the corridor to be broken.

If some movement begins in the Asian market, then traders from other parts of the world will immediately begin to look at it, since this will inevitably affect their markets.

How to access these exchanges

To enter the Asian online stock markets, you need to use the services of brokers. You can choose a Russian company, in which case you will have technical support in Russian. However, domestic brokers charge higher commissions for entering foreign exchanges, so it makes sense to take a closer look at foreign companies.

In any case, it is worth studying all the conditions and tariffs in detail before concluding an agreement.

That is why I invite readers to familiarize themselves with the list of the most popular brokers:

Rick Keith Opening CapTrader Exante

The oldest Russian broker, operating since 1994. An excellent choice for those who want to connect to autofollow. Pros:

• no annoying calls with offers to spend money;
• own trading platform;
• impressive results of strategies (+74% for 2021) that you can connect to.

Of the minuses:

• no Quik.

You can read the full review here.

A good broker for a beginner. Here I hold the Russian part of the investment portfolio from an ETF from FinEx on an IIS.

The broker pleases:

• low commissions and the absence of annoying calls with offers to spend my money.

Of the minuses:

• weak personal account and inconvenient system for annual key regeneration.

The review can be read here.

Another great broker with whom I worked for more than 2 years. This is where I traded on FORTS.

Pros:

1. Reasonable commissions
2. Excellent personal account
3. Nice free services

The downside is the broker's love of calling people trying to sell something.

The review can be viewed here.

German IB introducing broker for direct access to foreign markets. This is where my investment portfolio is located.

Pros:

1. Works with Russians
2. Availability of a Russian-language version of the site
3. Reasonable commissions
4. No inactivity fee
5. Insurance under US law for $500k

The disadvantages include:

• Support exclusively in English and German
• The support service itself is poor

For a detailed review, see this post.

Another interesting broker for going abroad, and not from the IB family. Unfortunately, contracts are opened for Russians only in Cyprus.

Pros:

1. Acceptable commissions
2. The fact of successful verification of work by the SEC
3. Russian-language website and support

On the downside:

• Cyprus jurisdiction
• Inactivity fee

Read a detailed review here. You can get a $500 bonus when opening an account here.

Forex and Binary Options Warning

Expert opinion

Vladimir Silchenko

Private investor, entrepreneur and blog author

Ask a Question

I would like to draw your attention to the fact that the exchanges listed in the article are not related to Forex, despite the fact that currencies are bought and sold online there.

Forex works 24/7 without interruptions, this market is not regulated by anyone. The trading volumes there are huge, and individuals have nothing to do on Forex, even if they have a capital of a couple of tens of millions of dollars. The Forex that is offered in various types of advertising is simply a simulation of the market, where the service provider can easily leave you without money.

Therefore, you need to trade only on licensed trading platforms, accessing them through brokers. These exchanges (except for the Chicago CME) also do not trade the binary options that everyone has heard of. Therefore, we simply avoid all places where the words “Forex” and “binary options” are mentioned - this is a scam.