Asian equity markets ended mostly in green on Thursday as the yen's strong trend paused, oil prices rebounded from an overnight selloff, and Japan reported stronger-than-expected exports in March. Reports showed that Japan's exports rose at a faster-than-expected 12 percent pace in March, while imports jumped nearly 16 percent from a year earlier. A revival of demand in China helped push exports up 16.4 percent from the year before to 1.3 trillion yen ($11 billion), while exports to the US climbed 3.5 percent to 1.35 trillion yen ($12 billion). Chinese shares ended marginally higher as investors lapped up stocks that would benefit from the newly-launched Xiongan economic zone. However, Japanese stocks ended nearly flat as investors became cautious ahead of global risk events such as the first-round of French presidential elections at the weekend and mounting tensions over North Korea.
Asian Indices | Last Trade | Change in Points | Change in % |
Shanghai Composite | 3,172.10 | 1.41 | 0.04 |
Hang Seng | 24,056.98 | 231.10 | 0.97 |
Jakarta Composite | 5,595.31 | -11.21 | -0.20 |
KLSE Composite | 1,741.61 | 2.66 | 0.15 |
Nikkei 225 | 18,430.49 | -1.71 | -0.01 |
Straits Times | 3,137.88 | 11.60 | 0.37 |
KOSPI Composite | 2,149.15 | 10.75 | 0.50 |
Taiwan Weighted | 9,632.69 | -7.25 | -0.08 |