Asian markets closed in green on Tuesday, with Shanghai shares surging by more than 5% after plunging by a similar rate on a another day of heightened volatility. Japan’s inflation-adjusted real wages slid in May from a year earlier despite a tightening job market to register a 25th straight month of decline. The data highlights the challenge policymakers face in generating a virtuous cycle, under which rising revenues prompt companies to boost wages so that households increase spending. Total cash earnings rose 0.6% in the year to May, increasing for a second straight month, with regular pay up 0.3%. But inflation-adjusted real wages fell 0.1% in May after a revised decline by the same margin in April, suggesting that consumer spending will remain weak. South Korea’s industrial output slumped in May, with production losses across key automobile, semiconductor and machinery sectors prompting analysts to trim their year-end economic growth forecasts and bringing another rate cut into view. Industrial output in Asia’s fourth-largest economy fell a seasonally adjusted 1.3% in May from April, the third monthly decline. Hong Kong Retail Sales rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of -0.1%, from -2.2% in the preceding month.
Asian Indices | Last Trade | Change in Points | Change in % |
Shanghai Composite | 4,277.22 | 224.19 | 5.53 |
Hang Seng | 26,250.03 | 283.05 | 1.09 |
Jakarta Composite | 4,910.66 | 28.08 | 0.58 |
KLSE Composite | 1,706.64 | 14.72 | 0.87 |
Nikkei 225 | 20,235.73 | 125.78 | 0.63 |
Straits Times | 3,317.33 | 37.15 | 1.13 |
KOSPI Composite | 2,074.20 | 13.71 | 0.67 |
Taiwan Weighted | 9,323.02 | 86.92 | 0.94 |