Asian markets end mostly lower on Thursday

19 Jul 2018 Evaluate

Asian equity markets ended mostly lower on Thursday as renewed concerns about the impact of tariffs offset earnings optimism and upbeat comments from US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell during his two days of testimony. Chinese shares ended lower, despite moves by the central bank to encourage more bank lending, as persistent yuan weakness hit airline stocks. Further, Japanese shares ended a choppy session lower as the yen strengthened against all major currencies after the Bank of Japan (BoJ) lowered purchases of longer-dated bonds for the first time since January. Japan posted a merchandise trade surplus of 721.408 billion yen in June, the Ministry of Finance said today. That exceeded expectations for a surplus of 531.2 billion yen following the 578.3 billion yen deficit in May. Exports advanced an annual 6.7 percent to 7.052 trillion yen while imports were up just 2.5 percent from a year earlier.

Asian Indices

Last Trade           

Change in Points

Change in %

Shanghai Composite

2,772.98

-14.28

-0.51

Hang Seng

28,010.86

-106.56

-0.38

Jakarta Composite

5,871.08

-19.65

-0.33

KLSE Composite

1,759.24

6.17

0.35

Nikkei 225

22,764.68

-29.51

-0.13

Straits Times

3,277.58

37.08

1.13

KOSPI Composite

2,282.29

-7.82

-0.34

Taiwan Weighted

10,835.38

-7.08

-0.07

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