While North American and European supermarket stocks closed lower Friday, likely in response to the threat posed by e-commerce giant Amazon to the grocery space after its announced US$13.7 billion deal to purchase Whole Foods, the reaction from Asian markets has been mixed. 

The continent's bourses were already closed when the announcement was made last week, and on Monday there was no discernible trend in response.

Further south in Australia though, all major listed supermarket saw their share prices fall.

Leading Japanese retailer Aeon Co Ltd actually saw a slight rise of 0.46% in its share price, while increases were also seen with the country's Yamada Denki Co Ltd (+1.6%) and Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings (+0.77%).

In India, Big Bazaar owner Future Retail Ltd saw an increase of 5.7% in its share price, while in China, Lianhua Supermarket saw an uptick of 2.37% and shares in Yonghui Superstores were up 1.5%.

In contrast, falls were seen for Hong Kong-based regional player Dairy Farm International Holdings (-1.96%), as well as South Korea's Lotte Shopping Co Ltd (-1.61%) and e-mart owner Shinsegae Inc (-1.86%). 

In Australia, shares in Coles owner Wesfarmers were down marginally by 0.22%, but the drops were more pronounced at Woolworths (-3.5%) and IGA owner Metcash (-2.33%).

In the U.S., at the time of writing Walmart shares have been relatively flat today, and Costco saw has had a minor recovery of 1.89% from Friday's 7.19% fall, while Kroger and Supervalu - which suffered the biggest drops last week - have had small gains of 1.28% and 0.47% respectively.

Walgreens shares are up 1.48% following a 4.99% decline on Friday, while Target Corporation has fallen further by 1.7%.

In Canada, Loblaws has stayed pretty flat and Metro Inc is up 1.23%.

In continental Europe, Koninklijke Ahold Delhaize shares fell further by 1.71% and Carrefour shares picked up slightly by 0.2%.

In the U.K., rebounds were seen for Sainsbury's (+2.26%), Marks & Spencer (+1.56%) and Morrisons (+0.78%), while Tesco shares were more or less flat.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

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