Asian markets ended mostly higher on Wednesday as investors kept an eye on key events this week, including the Federal Reserve meeting, the UK general election and the weekend's Sino-US trade tariff deadline. Market sentiment has improved further on rising speculation that the America would delay implementing new tariffs at the 15 December deadline this week. Chinese shares ended higher as new loan growth data for November topped forecasts. China's bank lending increased more than expected in November, data from the People's Bank of China showed. Banks extended CNY 1.39 trillion new loans in November versus CNY 661 billion in October. Lending was forecast to rise to CNY 1.2 trillion. Further, Seoul shares ended higher after the release of labor market data. South Korea's jobless rate rose to a seasonally adjusted 3.6 percent in November from 3.5 percent in October, a government report showed. The rate was forecast to remain unchanged at 3.5 percent. In the same period last year, the rate was 3.8 percent.
Asian Indices | Last Trade | Change in Points | Change in % |
Shanghai Composite | 2,924.42 | 7.10 | 0.24 |
Hang Seng | 26,645.43 | 208.81 | 0.79 |
Jakarta Composite | 6,180.10 | -3.41 | -0.06 |
KLSE Composite | 1,564.14 | 2.35 | 0.15 |
Nikkei 225 | 23,391.86 | -18.33 | -0.08 |
Straits Times | 3,172.90 | 10.01 | 0.32 |
KOSPI Composite | 2,105.62 | 7.62 | 0.36 |
Taiwan Weighted | 11,700.77 | 72.93 | 0.63 |
