Asian equity markets made a mixed closing on Thursday as optimism over US President Donald Trump's tax reforms faded and tensions continued to flare in the Middle East. The yen was a little weaker and oil held steady after overnight losses while strong inflation data out of China underscored the resilience of the world's second-largest economy. Chinese shares ended at a fresh two-year high as encouraging inflation data pointed to a pickup in global demand. China's inflation climbed at the fastest pace in nine months in October and producer price inflation exceeded expectations as measures taken to curb pollution raised commodity prices. Consumer price inflation rose to 1.9 percent in October from 1.6 percent in September, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed. This was the highest rate since January, when inflation was 2.5 percent. Producer price inflation held steady at 6.9 percent in October, while it was forecast to ease to 6.6 percent. Meanwhile, Japanese shares ended down after dramatic intraday swings took the Nikkei and Topix indexes to multi-decade highs only to plunge in the afternoon on futures-driven trading ahead of the following day’s options settlement.
Asian Indices | Last Trade | Change in Points | Change in % |
Shanghai Composite | 3,427.80 | 12.34 | 0.36 |
Hang Seng | 29,136.57 | 228.97 | 0.79 |
Jakarta Composite | 6,042.46 | -6.92 | -0.11 |
KLSE Composite | 1,746.81 | 2.61 | 0.15 |
Nikkei 225 | 22,868.71 | -45.11 | -0.20 |
Straits Times | 3,423.91 | 2.66 | 0.08 |
KOSPI Composite | 2,550.57 | -1.83 | -0.07 |
Taiwan Weighted | 10,743.27 | -75.72 | -0.70 |