Asian equity markets ended mostly higher on Wednesday as investors took trade tensions in their stride and looked ahead to the Bank of England monetary policy meeting Thursday and Friday's OPEC meeting for directional cues. Chinese shares closed higher after the People's Bank of China said in a working paper that China should appropriately reduce its reserve requirements to ease burdens on financial institutions and smooth the interest rate transmission mechanism. The central bank also injected funds into the financial system via its medium-term lending facility to offset liquidity pressure. Further, Japanese shares ended higher as the dollar rose against the yen.
Asian Indices | Last Trade | Change in Points | Change in % |
Shanghai Composite | 2,916.74 | 8.92 | 0.31 |
Hang Seng | 29,696.17 | 228.02 | 0.77 |
Jakarta Composite | 5,884.04 | -109.59 | -1.86 |
KLSE Composite | 1,664.26 | 24.72 | 1.49 |
Nikkei 225 | 22,555.43 | 276.95 | 1.23 |
Straits Times | 3,315.90 | 14.55 | 0.44 |
KOSPI Composite | 2,363.91 | 23.80 | 1.01 |
Taiwan Weighted | 1,709.75 | -5.61 | -0.33 |
