The Asian markets concluded Friday’s trade mostly in green while profit-taking pulled Japanese shares down from a near six-year high hit in the prior session. Japan’s core consumer price index rose 0.9% in October from a year earlier, an acceleration in the pace of price growth from the previous month and a sign that Japan is on its way to shaking off 15 years of deflation. The 0.9% rise was the fastest pace of growth in the index since November 2008. Japanese industrial production rose 0.5% in October from the previous month marking the second straight month of expansion. Japanese Housing Starts fell to a seasonally adjusted 7.1%, from 19.4% in the preceding quarter.
In Hong Kong, the value of total retail sales in October, provisionally estimated at $37.8 billion, rose 6.3% year-on-year. After netting out the effect of price changes over the same period, the total retail sales volume grew 5.8%. The revised estimate of the total retail sales value in September increased 5% over a year earlier, while the total retail sales volume rose 4.9%. For the first 10 months of the year, total retail sales grew 11.9% in value and 11.3% in volume over a year earlier. Thailand’s trade balance fell to a seasonally adjusted 0.34B, from 2.56B in the preceding month.
Asian Indices | Last Trade | Change in Points | Change in % |
Shanghai Composite | 2220.50 | 1.13 | 0.05 |
Hang Seng | 23881.29 | 92.20 | 0.39 |
Jakarta Composite | 4256.44 | 22.51 | 0.53 |
KLSE Composite | 1812.72 | 5.12 | 0.28 |
Nikkei 225 | 15661.87 | -65.25 | -0.41 |
Straits Times | 3176.35 | -10.02 | -0.31 |
KOSPI Composite | 2044.87 | -0.90 | -0.04 |
Taiwan Weighted | 8406.83 | 44.40 | 0.53 |
