Asian markets trade mostly in red in early deals on Friday

19 Apr 2024 Evaluate

Asian markets are trading mostly in red in early deals on Friday, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight, on ongoing concerns over the tensions in the middle-east with reports of Israel retaliating to last weekend's attacks. Interest rates continued to weigh on markets as the US Fed is now widely expected to hold off on cutting rates until at least July. Meanwhile, Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari called for patience in rate reductions, saying the first move may not take place until 2025. Japan's Nikkei down over two and half a percent on heavy selling of semiconductor-related shares and other market heavyweights. However, bucking the trend, Malaysia is trading higher. Moreover, Japan's headline inflation rate in March slowed to 2.7 per cent, while the core-core index, excluding fresh food and energy costs, moderated to 2.9 per cent, marking the first time since November 2022 that the index fell below 3 per cent.

Nikkei 225 slipped 970.43 points or 2.62% to 37,109.27, Taiwan Weighted lost 705.87 points or 3.6% to 19,595.33, Hang Seng declined 201.85 points or 1.25% to 16,184.02, Jakarta Composite weakened 108.78 points or 1.54% to 7,058.03, KOSPI dropped 47.67 points or 1.84% to 2,587.03, Straits Times fell 18.7 points or 0.59% to 3,168.96 and Shanghai Composite was down by 12.22 points or 0.4% to 3,062.00, while FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was up by 6.07 points or 0.39% to 1,550.83.

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