The Asian markets ended mostly in green on Thursday, on Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen’s indication that the US central bank is in no hurry to hike interest rates. Bank of Japan board member Koji Ishida stated that any necessary adjustment to monetary policy should be saved for ensuring longer-term economic stability and should not be made just to hit the 2% inflation target in the near term. He added that it is too early to debate an exit strategy but BoJ will eventually need to go easy on massive stimulus as prices move upward. BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda stated that there was no ceiling on how much the central bank would expand its balance sheet relative to the size of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). Kuroda added that a median forecast of the BOJ’s nine board members produced in January, which is for core consumer inflation to hit 2.2 percent in fiscal 2016, showed that members of the board expect inflation to hit the central bank’s 2 percent target by the end of that year in March 2017. Malaysian Unemployment Rate remained unchanged at a seasonally adjusted 2.8% compared to the preceding month. Singaporean Industrial Production rose to an annual rate of 0.9%, from -1.9% in the preceding month.
Asian Indices | Last Trade | Change in Points | Change in % |
Shanghai Composite | 3,298.36 | 69.52 | 2.15 |
Hang Seng | 24,902.06 | 123.78 | 0.50 |
Jakarta Composite | 5,451.42 | 6.31 | 0.12 |
KLSE Composite | 1,820.87 | 5.01 | 0.28 |
Nikkei 225 | 18,785.79 | 200.59 | 1.08 |
Straits Times | 3,426.18 | -14.65 | -0.43 |
KOSPI Composite | 1,993.08 | 2.61 | 0.13 |
Taiwan Weighted | 9,622.10 | -77.44 | -0.80 |