The Asian markets ended mostly in green on Tuesday, with China’s main stock index rising to its highest in almost seven years, breaking through a key psychological resistance level to raise investors’ hopes that the market has resumed a bull run begun midway through last year. The Bank of Japan board decided by an 8 to 1 vote to leave the bank’s policy target unchanged while revising down its near-term inflation outlook on weak energy prices as expected. The collapse of crude oil prices last year has clouded the prospect for the central bank plan to anchor 2% inflation in about two years from April 2013, when it launched aggressive easing. That has caused the BoJ to revise down its near-term inflation outlook. At the same time however, the BoJ sees the economic recovery intact. Japan’s index of leading economic indicators rose to a seasonally adjusted 105.5, from 105.1 in the preceding month. Hong Kong Unemployment Rate remained unchanged at a seasonally adjusted 3.3% compared to its preceding month.
Asian Indices | Last Trade | Change in Points | Change in % |
Shanghai Composite | 3,502.85 | 53.54 | 1.55 |
Hang Seng | 23,901.49 | -48.06 | -0.20 |
Jakarta Composite | 5,439.15 | 3.88 | 0.07 |
KLSE Composite | 1,787.87 | 7.33 | 0.41 |
Nikkei 225 | 19,437.00 | 190.94 | 0.99 |
Straits Times | 3,369.95 | -6.09 | -0.18 |
KOSPI Composite | 2,029.91 | 42.58 | 2.14 |
Taiwan Weighted | 9,539.44 | 26.53 | 0.28 |