The Asian markets barring Jakarta Composite concluded Thursday’s trade in red with Japan gave away much of its gains from the previous session while Chinese inflation data kept Hong Kong sentiment in check. China’s consumer-price inflation slowed in December, while deflation for wholesale prices held steady. The consumer price index (CPI) rose 2.5% from a year earlier, slowing from a 3% gain in November, the National Bureau of Statistics stated. Prices were 0.3% higher versus the previous month, swinging from a 0.1% drop. Chinese Producer price inflation remained unchanged at an annual rate of -1.4%, from -1.4% in the preceding month. The inflation figures came after some disappointing economic numbers from China earlier in the month that pointed to decelerating activity in both the services and manufacturing sectors.
China’s gross domestic product for 2012 has been revised to 51.947 trillion yuan ($8.58 trillion), 52.8 billion yuan higher than the preliminary reading released last September. The revised GDP growth remains unchanged at 7.7 percent. Malaysian Industrial Production rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.4%, from 1.7% in the preceding month.
Asian Indices | Last Trade | Change in Points | Change in % |
Shanghai Composite | 2027.62 | -16.72 | -0.82 |
Hang Seng | 22787.33 | -209.26 | -0.91 |
Jakarta Composite | 4201.22 | 0.62 | 0.01 |
KLSE Composite | 1828.21 | -3.09 | -0.17 |
Nikkei 225 | 15880.33 | -241.12 | -1.50 |
Straits Times | 3145.41 | -5.24 | -0.17 |
KOSPI Composite | 1946.11 | -12.85 | -0.66 |
Taiwan Weighted | 8514.68 | -41.33 | -0.48 |