Asian markets grapple with Evergrande fallout, eye China power crunch

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Asian shares mainly drifted lower Tuesday as investors continued to fret over China Evergrande Group’s unsolved debt crisis and eyed the potential impact of a widening power shortage in China.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was 0.13% lower on Tuesday, following a mixed session on Wall Street

In early trade Tuesday, Australia’s benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down nearly 1%, while Japan’s Nikkei was off 0.6%.

China’s blue chip index CSI300 edged up 0.1% at the open, as Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gained 0.44%.

The future of Evergrande, the world’s most indebted property developer, is being forensically scrutinised by investors after the company last Friday did not meet a deadline to make an interest payment to offshore bond holders.