Asian stocks are almost steady at the opening of today's trading. Thus, China's Shanghai Composite and Shenzhen Composite added 0.15% and 0.31% respectively. Korea's KOSPI declined slightly by 0.26%, while Japan's Nikkei 225 fell by 0.33%. Australian and Hong Kong stock exchanges were closed for holidays. However, on Friday these indicators went up: the S&P/ASX 200 index grew by 0,44% and the Hang Seng Index increased by 0,13%.

Despite the global fears about the COVID-19 strain being reduced, a certain amount of uncertainty about the economic outlook still remains. According to recent studies, the new variant is less dangerous than previous ones. At the same time, a high increase in the number of new cases of the Omicron variant is reported in the United States and the PRC. It exceeds the previous wave of COVID-19 caused by the Delta strain.

Airlines have been forced to cancel nearly 6,000 flights since December 24 due to the rapid spread of the Omicron variant. Just yesterday, 1,500 flights were cancelled globally.

Another factor affecting investor sentiment is China's uncertain real estate issue. Many experts believe that the largest property developer Evergrande is still close to bankruptcy.

Following Japan's indicator decline, the shares of Z Holdings Corp. lost 3.42%, SoftBank Group Corp. fell by 2.9%, Toho Zinc Co. decreased by 2.61% and Fast Retailing went down 1.7%. At the same time, the stocks of Toyota Motor Corp. rose by 0.6% and Honda Motor Co. Ltd. added 0.4%.

The shares of the following Chinese companies fell dramatically: Digital Technology (Group) Co., Ltd., Lanzhou Greatwall Electrical Co., Ltd. and Fsilon Furnishing & Construction Materials Corp. went down 10.03%, 10.01% and 9.99% respectively.

Stocks of Korean companies Samsung Electronics Co. and Hyundai Motor dropped by 0.4% and 0.2% respectively.