The Asian markets concluded Friday’s trade mostly in green, while Shanghai Composite ended in red on concerns over weak Chinese inflation data. China’s annual inflation fell sharply to 1.8% in April, the lowest in 18 months raising concerns about the risk of deflation in the world’s second-largest economy. The country’s consumer price index - a main gauge of inflation - increased by 2.2% in the first four months of the year from the same period in 2013. Chinese PPI rose to an annual rate of -2.0%, from -2.3% in the preceding month. Japan’s index of leading economic indicators rose to a seasonally adjusted 106.5. Philippines Industrial Production fell to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of -1.1%, from 6.8% in the preceding month whose figure was revised up from 1.2%. The central bank has cut Indonesia’s gross domestic product estimate as it has kept its benchmark rate unchanged for the sixth consecutive month in an effort to narrow the country’s current account deficit. Bank Indonesia, blaming weak exports, cut full-year gross domestic product growth to between 5.1% and 5.5% from its previous estimate of between 5.5% and 5.9%.
Asian Indices | Last Trade | Change in Points | Change in % |
Shanghai Composite | 2011.14 | -4.14 | -0.21 |
Hang Seng | 21862.99 | 25.87 | 0.12 |
Jakarta Composite | 4898.14 | 37.25 | 0.77 |
KLSE Composite | 1866.72 | 3.88 | 0.21 |
Nikkei 225 | 14199.59 | 35.81 | 0.25 |
Straits Times | 3252.13 | 4.44 | 0.14 |
KOSPI Composite | 1956.55 | 5.95 | 0.31 |
Taiwan Weighted | 8889.69 | -41.21 | -0.46 |