Asian markets settled mostly higher on Thursday, tracking Wall Street gains overnight ahead of US CPI data due out later in the day, that will provide insights into the US Federal Reserve’s monetary policy for the year. US bank earnings and China’s trade and inflation figures also remained on investors' radar. Meanwhile, US Federal Reserve Bank of New York President John Williams said that it’s still too soon to call for interest rate cuts as the Fed still has some distance to go on getting inflation back to its 2% target. Hong Kong shares rallied on hopes of monetary policy easing by China's central bank. Japanese markets gained as a weaker yen on dovish BoJ bets boosted export-related shares. Seoul shares finished almost flat as the Bank of Korea kept its monetary policy unchanged at a policy meeting, as inflation remains above the 3% range.
| Asian Indices | Last Trade | Change in Points | Change in % |
| Shanghai Composite | 2,886.65 | 8.95 | 0.31 |
| Hang Seng | 16,302.04 | 204.76 | 1.26 |
| Jakarta Composite | 7,219.96 | -7.34 | -0.10 |
| KLSE Composite | 1,483.00 | -3.86 | -0.26 |
| Nikkei 225 | 35,049.86 | 608.14 | 1.74 |
| Straits Times | 3,201.41 | 21.45 | 0.67 |
| KOSPI Composite | 2,540.27 | -1.71 | -0.07 |
| Taiwan Weighted | 17,545.32 | 79.69 | 0.45 |
