Asian markets settled mostly higher on Friday tracking Wall Street's overnight gains driven by retreating Treasury yields after Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller stated he is leaning toward keeping interest rates steady at the US central bank's policy meeting this month if the next batch of inflation data shows price pressures are continuing to moderate. A slight decline in global crude prices also kept the market sentiments upbeat, though the Brent crude oil prices continued to trade above $95 a barrel mark due to renewed US-Iran hostilities and elevated concerns over supply disruptions. Further, investors awaited the release of August US jobs report for further cues on the Fed's policy outlook. Meanwhile, the Bank of Japan is widely expected to consider a 0.25 percentage point rate increase to 1.25% at its upcoming policy meeting on September 17-18 to contain inflationary pressures.
Asian Indices | Last Trade | Change in Points | Change in % |
Shanghai Composite | 3,930.12 | -11.97 | -0.30 |
Hang Seng | 25,650.87 | 437.56 | 1.74 |
Jakarta Composite | 6,636.48 | -31.41 | -0.47 |
KLSE Composite | 1,708.10 | -7.03 | -0.41 |
Nikkei 225 | 65,020.94 | 806.46 | 1.26 |
Straits Times | 5,801.96 | 54.25 | 0.94 |
KOSPI Composite | 6,687.21 | 107.73 | 1.64 |
Taiwan Weighted | 46,551.13 | 693.47 | 1.51 |
