Nikkei lower after Obama-Abe summit

Asian stock markets have broadly declined today (April 24th), with the Nikkei 225 leading the way as investors expressed disappointment at the conclusion of a summit between US president Barack Obama and Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe. 

Sentiment was dampened from the start following a soft close on Wall Street, where the Commerce Department published a report showing sales of American new homes dropped to their lowest level since last July in March.

Many investors had hoped a formal trade agreement would be reached between the US and Japan following the meeting between the two leaders, but this was not the case. 

Following a 1.1 per cent rise in the previous session, the Nikkei gave back almost all of these gains and ended the session down by 0.97 per cent at 14,404.99 points.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng was up by 0.12 per cent, while the Shanghai Composite continued to be hampered by yesterday's weaker-than-anticipated manufacturing report, sliding by a further 0.5 per cent.