The Asian markets after a jubilant start tailing US markets are showing consolidation and some of the indices have slipped in red. Standard & Poor’s downgrade of Spain’s sovereign- credit rating was weighing on the sentiments. Japanese market was trading flat ahead of the central bank’s monetary policy today, with expectations running high for the central bank to take further accommodative steps. The country’s consumer prices rose in March, though Bank of Japan’s inflation forecast is also due today. The Chinese market too was trading slightly week after Bank of China Ltd., the country’s third-biggest lender by assets, reported that profit growth decelerated to 10 percent in the first quarter due to slowing economy that curtailed loan expansion and margins.
Hang Seng added 67.56 points or 0.32% to 20,877.27, Seoul Composite gained 9.50 points or 0.47% to 1,973.22. Straits Times Index was up by 9.73 points or 0.31% to 2,991.01
On the other hand, Shanghai Composite lost 8.96 points or 0.37% to 2,395.74, KLSE Composite lost 7.54 points or 0.48% to 1,572.15, Jakarta Composite was down by 12.86 points or 0.30% to 4,167.45, Nikkei 225 declined by 10.71 points or 0.11% to 9,551.12 and Taiwan Weighted dropped 24.56 points or 0.33% to 7,497.44.