India inflation and industrial data in focus

Asia-Pacific markets rose on Monday after a rollercoaster week that saw steep sell-offs followed by a sharp recovery, especially in Japan stocks.

Futures for benchmark U.S. indexes were lower as investors awaited key inflation data due later this week. Major Wall Street averages rose Friday, with the indexes making a sharp recovery from last week’s market rout.

The Dow ended Friday down 0.6%, the S&P 500 was little changed, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.18%.

In Asia, traders on Monday will assess inflation and industrial output data from India.

Economists polled by Reuters expect India’s year-on-year CPI inflation to fall sharply to 3.65% in July, from 5.08% in the previous month.

Meanwhile, India’s industrial output for June is expected to come in at 5.5%, slightly down from 5.9% in May.

Stocks of Indian multinational conglomerate Adani Group were trading down after U.S.-based short-seller Hindenburg Research, accused the head of the country’s chief market regulator of conflict of interest with the group. 

The company’s flagship Adani Enterprises fell nearly 5% before making a recovery, last down 1.5%. The benchmark Nifty 50 index was up 0.30%.

Hindenburg alleged that Madhabi Puri Buch, the chairperson of India’s market regulator, had in the past held investments in some offshore funds that were also used by the Adani Group, calling into question a probe into fraud allegations against the conglomerate earlier this year.

Buch reportedly called the report’s allegations baseless.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.45%. Australian consumer electronics retail company JB Hi-Fi was up over 8% after the company released its full-year results.

Despite a fall in net profit after tax, the company announced a special dividend of 80 Australian cents per share (53 U.S. cents per share), made possible by “an elevated net cash position and a significant franking credit balance.”

South Korea’s Kospi and the small-cap Kosdaq rose about 1%. Major South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix was up 3.4%.

Data from the South Korea’s industry ministry and the Korea International Trade Association released on Sunday showed that in the first half of the year the country’s memory chip exports to Taiwan grew by 225.7% compared to the same period last year, according to a local media report.

Market watchers attribute the sudden surge of exports to SK Hynix’s supply of its high bandwidth memory chips to American AI chip major Nvidia, which uses Taiwan’s TSMC for chip fabrication.

Mainland China’s CSI 300 was up 0.1% in choppy trading, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose 0.2%.

Japan markets were closed for a holiday.

—CNBC’s Tanaya Macheel contributed to this report.