The Asian markets concluded Wednesday’s trade mostly in green with a rally on Wall Street giving Tokyo the impetus to claw back some of its losses in the previous session. Markets around the world have been sent into a tailspin in recent days following worse than expected manufacturing activity data from China and the United States, suggesting softness in the global economy. Taiwan January manufacturing expanded at its quickest in nearly three years as output and new orders rose. The HSBC Purchasing Managers’ Index was 55.5 in January compared with 55.2 in December--improving for the fourth straight month. Japan’s Average Cash Earnings rose to a seasonally adjusted 0.8%, from 0.6% in the preceding quarter whose figure was revised up from 0.5%.
Indonesia’s economy expanded at the slowest pace in four years in 2013, as investment weakened and imports of machinery and petroleum products eroded earnings from exports. Gross domestic product rose 5.78% from a year earlier. Growth was slower than last year’s 6.23% pace and the slowest since the 4.63% rate in 2009. Indonesia’s finance ministry raised 15 trillion rupiah ($1.23 billion) at a bond auction, well above an indicative target of 10 trillion rupiah. The country sold all offered government securities with the yields mixed compared with the previous auction on January 21.
Asian Indices | Last Trade | Change in Points | Change in % |
Shanghai Composite | - | - | - |
Hang Seng | 21269.38 | -128.39 | -0.60 |
Jakarta Composite | 4384.31 | 32.05 | 0.74 |
KLSE Composite | 1785.88 | 7.05 | 0.40 |
Nikkei 225 | 14180.38 | 171.91 | 1.23 |
Straits Times | 2960.09 | -5.71 | -0.19 |
KOSPI Composite | 1891.32 | 4.47 | 0.24 |
Taiwan Weighted | 8264.48 | -198.09 | -2.34 |