Asian markets settled higher on Thursday tracking Wall Street’s gains overnight after the US President Donald Trump paused most of his sweeping reciprocal tariffs for 90 days to allow more time for negotiations, but raised the levies on China to 125 percent. Japanese market led regional gains as chip-related shares surged. Moreover, Chinese shares gained ahead of a meeting of China’s top leaders to discuss additional stimulus measures to support the economy and markets in the face of an escalating trade war. Meanwhile, market participants closely watched for further insights into the Fed’s monetary policy outlook ahead of US consumer inflation data on Thursday and the US producer price report on Friday.
| Asian Indices | Last Trade | Change in Points | Change in % |
| Shanghai Composite | 3,223.64 | 36.83 | 1.14 |
| Hang Seng | 20,681.78 | 417.29 | 2.02 |
| Jakarta Composite | 6,254.02 | 286.03 | 4.57 |
| KLSE Composite | 1,463.13 | 62.54 | 4.47 |
| Nikkei 225 | 34,609.00 | 2,894.97 | 8.36 |
| Straits Times | 3,577.83 | 184.14 | 5.15 |
| KOSPI Composite | 2,445.06 | 151.36 | 6.19 |
| Taiwan Weighted | 19,000.03 | 1,608.27 | 8.46 |
