Asia Market Wrap 28 September: Shenzhen Falls 3.44 Percent and Brent Tops 108 Dollars After Tehran’s Offer Is Rejected
Asia opened the week lower after Washington rejected Tehran’s conditional offer to reopen the Strait of Hormuz: Shenzhen’s component index fell 3.44 percent, Seoul’s Kospi gave up 2.70 percent in its first session since the Chuseok holidays, and six of the nine boards that traded closed in the red while Hong Kong, Singapore and Sydney held small gains. Brent crude traded 3.84 percent higher at 108.33 dollars a barrel at 10:15 GMT, against Friday’s written settlement of 104.32 dollars.
The rejected offer puts the risk premium back in the barrel
President Donald Trump turned down Iran’s conditional offer to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and told aides he expects US strikes on the country to resume after November’s midterm elections, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday per the network, and the president later confirmed the rejection to reporters: “They made a proposal but I rejected it.” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who had offered on Friday to reopen the route and restart nuclear talks within seven days if Tehran’s conditions were met, told NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday that Iran is ready for a “doomsday” war with the United States but is still pursuing diplomacy so as not to “miss any chance for peace”. The weekend also brought five arrests near a British air base used in the strikes on Iran, on suspicion of explosives and terrorism offenses, per the network. Crude repriced the standoff through Asian hours, WTI up 3.86 percent at 95.98 dollars, while President Trump said separately on Sunday that Washington is “thinking about it very seriously” on a diesel export ban as US retail diesel prices hold near their record. Gold traded 3.03 percent lower against Friday’s settlement and silver 4.72 percent lower.
The mainland returns to a soft profits print, Seoul catches up
China’s markets traded for the first time since Thursday and sold off into the data: profits at the country’s major industrial firms grew 4.2 percent in August from a year earlier, the weakest pace this year on the statistics bureau’s figures, with January to August profits still up 15.7 percent, per the network, and the Shanghai Composite closed 1.67 percent lower at 3,823.62 while the Shenzhen Component lost 3.44 percent at 12,858.75. The session also carried the first full reading of the Trump and Xi summit: the two sides set out tariff relief covering 30 billion dollars of goods in each direction and agreed to open a dialogue on artificial intelligence, but the trade truce was extended by two months against pre-summit expectations of at least six, per the network’s account. Hong Kong bucked the region, the Hang Seng adding 0.54 percent to 24,642.51. Seoul’s Kospi, back from the Chuseok break for the first time since 23 September, fell 2.70 percent to 6,889.74 as it caught up with two missed sessions of higher yields and the weekend’s headlines. Mumbai’s Nifty 50 closed at 22,780.25, down 1.56 percent on the exchange’s own figures. Tokyo slipped with the Nikkei 225 down 0.73 percent at 65,877.62 and the Topix down 0.40 percent, Singapore’s Straits Times added 0.31 percent, and Sydney’s S&P/ASX 200 edged 0.17 percent higher on a session in which Northern Star Resources jumped more than 10 percent after rejecting an unsolicited 38.7 billion Australian dollar takeover approach from Gold Fields, per the network. Taipei stayed shut for Teacher’s Day and returns Tuesday.
Top gainers
| Index | Close | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Hang Seng (Hong Kong) | 24,642.51 | +0.54% |
| Straits Times (Singapore) | 5,729.02 | +0.31% |
| S&P/ASX 200 (Australia) | 8,679.70 | +0.17% |
Top gainers, closes of Monday 28 September 2026 from the vendor feed, ranked by change; the Hang Seng and ASX changes are measured against our published Friday closes. The Straits Times change is the feed’s own against its Friday basis of 5,711.12, which sits 0.47 points above our published close of 5,710.65, on our calculation.
Top losers
| Index | Close | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Topix (Japan) | 4,112.00 | -0.40% |
| Nikkei 225 (Japan) | 65,877.62 | -0.73% |
| Nifty 50 (India) | 22,780.25 | -1.56% |
| Shanghai Composite (China) | 3,823.62 | -1.67% |
| Kospi (South Korea) | 6,889.74 | -2.70% |
| Shenzhen Component (China) | 12,858.75 | -3.44% |
Top losers, same session and basis, ranked by change. The Japanese rows are measured against our published Friday 25 September closes and the mainland Chinese rows against our published Thursday 24 September closes, their last session; the Kospi change is measured against our published Wednesday 23 September close, its last session before Chuseok. The Nifty 50 row is from the National Stock Exchange itself, its change the exchange’s own against Friday’s 23,140.50, a session our Friday wrap did not carry as it had not closed. Taipei’s Taiex carried no session, the Taiwan Stock Exchange’s own holiday schedule keeping it shut until Tuesday 29 September; the vendor feed reprints its 24 September close and is not carried.
Commodities and currencies
| Instrument | Level | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Gold, COMEX (Dec’26), dollars an ounce | $4,190.40 | -3.03% |
| Silver, COMEX (Dec’26), dollars an ounce | $61.74 | -4.72% |
| Brent Crude, ICE (Nov’26), dollars a barrel | $108.33 | +3.84% |
| WTI Crude, NYMEX (Nov’26), dollars a barrel | $95.98 | +3.86% |
| US Dollar Index (DXY) | 101.158 | +0.19% |
| Euro/Dollar | 1.1370 | -0.18% |
| Sterling/Dollar | 1.3252 | +0.02% |
| Dollar/Yen | 157.08 | -0.11% |
Intraday quotes at 10:15 GMT on Monday 28 September 2026, fixed row order; changes measured against prior settlements are settlement to snapshot, and the crude rows’ prior settlements match Friday’s written settlements of 104.32 dollars for Brent and 92.41 for WTI exactly.
Why it matters: The weekend replaced Friday’s reopening offer with a rejection, and Monday’s board shows what that is worth: nearly 4 percent on the barrel, a 3 percent giveback in gold against Friday’s settlement, and the selling concentrated in the markets that had sessions to catch up on, Shenzhen, Seoul and Shanghai, while Hong Kong sat on the other side of a tariff truce extended in the same weekend. Of the nine boards that traded on Monday, the Hang Seng led at 0.54 percent higher and the Shenzhen Component lagged at 3.44 percent lower, on our count.
Outlook: The Gulf’s boards are back in full session on Monday, Abu Dhabi and Dubai rejoining after their weekend, and our Middle East wrap follows the region’s closes. Taipei returns Tuesday. The week’s larger tests sit later: the third estimate of second quarter US GDP and the August PCE price indexes on Wednesday and the September employment report on Friday, as carried in our Week Ahead of 27 September to 3 October, with Brent above 108 dollars now part of the inflation arithmetic those releases feed.
Sources: CNBC, National Stock Exchange of India, Taiwan Stock Exchange, The Edge.
