The Asian markets concluded Friday’s trade mostly in red, after a Malaysia plane was shot down over Ukraine and Israel sent troops into Gaza, spurring demand for haven assets. According to the minutes of June 12-13 policy meeting released showed that some Bank of Japan board members warned that tough global competition and moves to produce locally for consumers are hitting exports. But the minutes also stated that the nine-member board agreed that Japan’s exports were likely to increase moderately. The minutes also highlighted that a few members pointed to the possibility that structural factors such as the declines in Japanese firms’ competitiveness and the shift of their production sites overseas could be influencing exports to a larger degree than expected.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang stated that economic growth of slightly higher or lower than 7.5% this year would be acceptable as long as there was higher employment and wages. Li’s latest remarks signaled some flexibility in hitting the annual growth target and put more emphasis on reforms. Li added that the government will stick with its targeted approach in macro-economic policies, and will rely more on reforms and market forces to unleash growth drivers. In March, the government set an economic growth target of around 7.5% for 2014, along with an inflation target of around 3.5%. China’s new-home prices fell in a record number of cities tracked by the government as developers cut prices to boost sales volume, signaling curbs will be relaxed in more cities. Prices fell in 55 of the 70 cities last month from May, the most since January 2011 when the government changed the way it compiles the statistics.
Asian Indices | Last Trade | Change in Points | Change in % |
Shanghai Composite | 2059.07 | 3.48 | 0.17 |
Hang Seng | 23454.79 | -66.08 | -0.28 |
Jakarta Composite | 5087.01 | 15.81 | 0.31 |
KLSE Composite | 1872.97 | -10.17 | -0.54 |
Nikkei 225 | 15215.71 | -154.55 | -1.01 |
Straits Times | 3310.53 | 3.64 | 0.11 |
KOSPI Composite | 2019.42 | -1.48 | -0.07 |
Taiwan Weighted | 9400.97 | -7.27 | -0.08 |