Asian markets closed in red on Tuesday, barring Shanghai Composite and KOSPI Index. Shanghai stocks closed up amid a late spurt of buying after China’s two stock exchanges announced new rules to restrict short-selling. The Bank of Japan is expected to maintain its massive monetary stimulus and optimism on chances that it will hit its inflation target at a policy review later this week, even though the economy is expected to have contracted in the second quarter. BOJ is conducting simulations about how to end quantitative easing, including its purchase of exchange-traded funds, but it is too early to talk about specific strategies in public. Bank of Japan Deputy Governor Kikuo Iwata played down any risk that expected interest rate increases by the US Federal Reserve or the Bank of England could pose to financial markets, and dismissed suggestions that the BOJ should raise rates to prevent the yen from falling too fast. Japan’s Average Cash Earnings fell to a seasonally adjusted -2.4%, from 0.7% in the preceding quarter whose figure was revised up from 0.6%. South Koreans are on course to buy a record amount of gold in 2015, worried that a meltdown in China’s stock markets will destabilize South Korean equities and keen to replenish a traditional store of value in an era of low interest rates. In contrast to the weak demand in top gold buyers China and India, South Koreans are on target to buy 1 trillion won ($860 million) in bullion for the first time this year. South Korean CPI remained unchanged at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 0.7% compared to the preceding month.
Asian Indices Last Trade Change in Points Change in % Shanghai Composite 3,756.55 133.64 3.69 Hang Seng 24,406.12 -5.30 -0.02 Jakarta Composite 4,781.09 -19.10 -0.40 KLSE Composite 1,723.73 -20.46 -1.17 Nikkei 225 20,520.36 -27.75 -0.14 Straits Times 3,191.04 -1.75 -0.05 KOSPI Composite 2,027.99 19.50 0.97 Taiwan Weighted 8,510.86 -13.55 -0.16