The Asian markets concluded Tuesday’s trade mostly in green with major indexes following the US gains while Hong Kong and Shanghai are the standouts, taking a slam from the latest liquidity draining of China’s central bank. China’s foreign exchange reserves rose by $129 billion in the first quarter to $3.95 trillion at the end of March. Shanghai’s Consumer Price Index rose 2.5 percent from a year earlier in March, down from the 2.7 percent gain in February. Food costs remained the biggest contributor as they rose 4.3 percent in March while prices of transport, healthcare and clothing all dropped. The confidence of Chinese households continued to be strong despite China’s economy softening. The China Wealth Index to gauge sentiment among Chinese households remained flat at 130 in April, a similar reading to that in January but it was up from 127 in November of last year. Shanghai’s new home sales fell for the second consecutive week as buyers and developers adopted a wait-and-see stance. The purchases of new homes, excluding government-subsidized affordable housing, shrank 28.7 percent week on week to 146,900 square meters. In Hong Kong, the Exchange Fund’s foreign assets increased by $6.4 billion in March to $2.6308 trillion. The Monetary Base amounted to $1.2557 trillion.
Asian Indices | Last Trade | Change in Points | Change in % |
Shanghai Composite | 2101.60 | -29.94 | -1.40 |
Hang Seng | 22671.26 | -367.54 | -1.60 |
Jakarta Composite | 4870.22 | 5.33 | 0.11 |
KLSE Composite | 1853.88 | 2.35 | 0.13 |
Nikkei 225 | 13996.81 | 86.65 | 0.62 |
Straits Times | 3246.32 | 31.49 | 0.98 |
KOSPI Composite | 1992.27 | -4.75 | -0.24 |
Taiwan Weighted | 8916.71 | 59.29 | 0.67 |