Asian markets ended mostly higher on Thursday following a report that the United States and China were outlining agreements on the stickiest trade issues. Dovish signals from the US Federal Reserve also lent some support. Japanese shares ended higher as optimism over US-China trade talks helped investors shrug off weak manufacturing data. Japan's manufacturing sector slipped into contraction in February, the latest survey from Nikkei revealed with a 32-month low manufacturing PMI score of 48.5. That's down from 50.3 in January. Meanwhile, Chinese shares ended modestly lower after a spokesman for China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the country would not use the yuan's exchange rate as a bargaining chip to deal with trade dispute. Investors also bet that Beijing will not resort to aggressive interest rate cuts to spur the slowing economy, despite stronger yuan and cooling inflation.
Asian Indices | Last Trade | Change in Points | Change in % |
Shanghai Composite | 2,751.80 | -9.42 | -0.34 |
Hang Seng | 28,629.92 | 115.87 | 0.41 |
Jakarta Composite | 6,537.77 | 24.99 | 0.38 |
KLSE Composite | 1,730.68 | 4.50 | 0.26 |
Nikkei 225 | 21,464.23 | 32.74 | 0.15 |
Straits Times | 3,277.91 | -0.47 | -0.01 |
KOSPI Composite | 2,228.66 | -1.10 | -0.05 |
Taiwan Weighted | 10,319.53 | 47.07 | 0.46 |
