Asian markets settled mostly higher on Thursday, shrugging off drops in Europe and on Wall Street overnight as China underscored its diverging monetary and economic picture by cutting benchmark mortgage rates. Upward pressure on US yields eased as investors took advantage of higher yields resulting from the recent sell-off to buy the debt and as the Treasury saw strong demand for a sale of 20-year bonds. Hong Kong shares ended higher after China's interest rate cut to prop up a slowing economy, with investors pinning hopes on further easing in policies by Beijing. Japanese shares rebounded as bargain-hunting kicked in following selloffs in yesterday's trade. However, concerns over inflation on the back of climbing oil prices along with spreading of Omicron variant kept the market sentiments cautious to some extent.
Indices | Last Trade | Change in Points | Change in % |
Shanghai Composite | 3,555.06 | -3.12 | -0.09 |
Hang Seng | 24,952.35 | 824.50 | 3.42 |
Jakarta Composite | 6,626.87 | 34.89 | 0.53 |
KLSE Composite | 1,527.75 | -2.58 | -0.17 |
Nikkei 225 | 27,772.93 | 305.70 | 1.11 |
Straits Times | 3,294.82 | 10.88 | 0.33 |
KOSPI Composite | 2,862.68 | 20.40 | 0.72 |
Taiwan Weighted | 18,218.28 | -9.18 | -0.05 |
