Asian markets settled mostly lower on Friday, despite marginal gains in Wall Street overnight. Market sentiments dropped amid uncertainties over the US Federal Reserve's future rate hikes. The Fed minutes on Wednesday didn’t clearly hint at the pace of interest rate hikes and showed policymakers committed to raising interest rates to bring down inflation. St Louis Fed president James Bullard said he expects a third straight 75 bps interest rate hike in September, while San Francisco Fed colleague Mary Daly said that hiking rates by 50 or 75 bps next month would be reasonable. Chinese shares declined on heightening concerns about sluggish economic recovery. Japanese shares ended almost flat due to profit booking after a recent rally in stocks.
Asian Indices | Last Trade | Change in Points | Change in % |
Shanghai Composite | 3,258.08 | -19.46 | -0.59 |
Hang Seng | 19,773.03 | 9.12 | 0.05 |
Jakarta Composite | 7,172.43 | -14.13 | -0.20 |
KLSE Composite | 1,504.44 | -12.18 | -0.80 |
Nikkei 225 | 28,930.33 | -11.81 | -0.04 |
Straits Times | 3,246.51 | -26.97 | -0.82 |
KOSPI Composite | 2,492.69 | -15.36 | -0.61 |
Taiwan Weighted | 15,408.78 | 12.02 | 0.08 |
