The Asian indices ended mostly in red on Tuesday, tailing the negative cues from Wall Street amid worries about Greece. China’s annual consumer inflation hit a five-year low in January while factory deflation deepened, underscoring persistent weakness in the economy and heaping more pressures on policymakers to step up their efforts to support growth. The risk of deflation is rising as the world’s second-largest economy faces headwinds from a property market downturn and widespread factory overcapacity, and the situation may have worsened by falling global commodity prices. The consumer price index rose 0.8% in January from December. That was the weakest reading since November 2009, when consumer prices rose 0.6% from a year earlier. Philippines Industrial Production fell to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.2%, from 7.5% in the preceding month. Malaysian Industrial Production rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 7.4%, from 4.7% in the preceding month.
Asian Indices | Last Trade | Change in Points | Change in % |
Shanghai Composite | 3,141.59 | 46.47 | 1.50 |
Hang Seng | 24,528.10 | 7.10 | 0.03 |
Jakarta Composite | 5,321.47 | -27.00 | -0.50 |
KLSE Composite | 1,811.12 | -0.46 | -0.03 |
Nikkei 225 | 17,652.68 | -59.25 | -0.33 |
Straits Times | 3,434.24 | 16.22 | 0.47 |
KOSPI Composite | 1,935.86 | -11.14 | -0.57 |
Taiwan Weighted | 9,393.70 | -27.80 | -0.30 |