The Asian markets closed mixed on Wednesday, with Chinese stocks were higher, as gains in the Financials, Life Insurance and Banking sectors led indices higher. The Bank of Japan on Wednesday decided by an 8 to 1 vote to leave the bank’s policy target unchanged while board member Takahide Kiuchi, who had been opposed to the October 31 easing, called for an even lower simulative target than the one before the last easing. Now that the two-year period is over, Kiuchi proposed that the BoJ should conduct money market operations and asset purchases so that the monetary base and the amount outstanding of its JGB holdings will increase at an annual pace about 45 trillion yen. Japan’s Economy Watchers Current Index rose to a seasonally adjusted 52.2, from 50.1 in the preceding month. Taiwanese Trade Balance fell to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.07B, from 4.56B in the preceding month while Taiwanese CPI rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 0.55%, from 0.01% in the preceding quarter.
Asian Indices Last Trade Change in Points Change in % Shanghai Composite 3,994.81 33.43 0.84 Hang Seng 26,236.86 961.22 3.80 Jakarta Composite 5,486.59 -36.70 -0.66 KLSE Composite 1,850.31 -6.20 -0.33 Nikkei 225 19,789.81 149.27 0.76 Straits Times 3,460.68 -4.94 -0.14 KOSPI Composite 2,059.26 12.23 0.60 Taiwan Weighted 9,571.97 -69.93 -0.73