Asian equity markets were mostly flat Tuesday ahead of the U.S. presidential election, as investors await the outcome of a close race between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
Some investors said that a win by Clinton would calm markets, with traders largely preferring the Democratic nominee because of her perceived predictability on economic policies. That said, most of the gains from an expected Clinton win were priced in Monday.
“Up until the last few hours there was a sense of complacency” regarding a Clinton win, said Gary Huxtable, a private client adviser at Atlantic Pacific Securities in Sydney. But markets were now backtracking to reprice in the risk that Trump might win, he said.