Asian stock markets decline ahead of the Donald Trump-Xi Jinping meeting

While stock markets across China, Hong Kong and India were closed on Tuesday (4 April), the rest of the Asian markets were in the red, ahead of the meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Investors are said to be concerned over the two-day meeting from 6 April at Trump's luxury Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. The two leaders are expected to discuss various issues including trade and North Korea.

Last week, Trump tweeted that the meeting would be "a very difficult one". He also warned that the US would not hesitate to take unilateral action against North Korea unless China plays its part and puts pressure on Pyongyang.

Vishnu Varathan, economist at Mizuho Bank. was cited by CNBC as saying: "There is justifiable tension/apprehension building over the meeting between Presidents Trump and Xi this week as the former's China bashing over alleged mercantilist policies presumably sets the stage for what could be testy talks."

In Asia, traders are said to be awaiting the monetary policy decision by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA).

Economists mostly expect the RBA to keep the cash rate, which refers to the rate of interest which the central bank charges on overnight loans to commercial banks, at a record low of 1.50%. Tapas Strickland, an economist at the National Australia Bank, said: "The RBA Board Meeting is unanimously expected to be on hold, though markets will be paying close attention to the post meeting statement."

Indices in the region were trading as follows at 5.18am GMT:

On 3 April, the FTSE 100 closed 0.55% lower at 7,282.69, while the S&P 500 index closed 0.16% lower at 2,358.84.

Among commodities, oil prices were trading flat following an overnight decline. As of 1.09am EDT, WTI crude oil was unchanged at $50.24 (£40.37) a barrel, while Brent crude was trading 0.02% higher at $53.13 a barrel.