The Asian equity benchmarks ended mostly in green on Tuesday, with Chinese stocks rising on hopes for fresh economy-boosting measures by its leaders. The People’s Bank of China is using its official guidance rate to put a floor under the yuan, a move that suggests Beijing is worried enough about mounting capital outflows to resume intervention in the forex market. The new strategy - or more accurately, the return to an old one - represents a step back from Beijing’s repeated commitments to meddle less in the foreign exchange market, but the central bank lacks attractive alternatives. Indonesia’s trade deficit narrowed by more than half last year, bolstering confidence that trade would present less headwinds to the country’s economic rebound on the back of government spending and investment this year. The country booked $1.8 billion trade deficit in the January to December period last year due to a persistently poor performance of the oil and gas industry. Indonesian Trade Balance rose to a seasonally adjusted 0.19B, from -0.42B in the preceding month.
Asian Indices | Last Trade | Change in Points | Change in % |
Shanghai Composite | 3,204.91 | 76.61 | 2.45 |
Hang Seng | 24,554.78 | 70.04 | 0.29 |
Jakarta Composite | 5,291.72 | 15.48 | 0.29 |
KLSE Composite | - | - | - |
Nikkei 225 | 17,335.85 | -222.19 | -1.27 |
Straits Times | 3,408.02 | -15.33 | -0.45 |
KOSPI Composite | 1,951.96 | -0.72 | -0.04 |
Taiwan Weighted | 9,448.73 | 61.74 | 0.66 |