Equity markets in the Asia-Pacific region are mainly rising in trading on Thursday, following the dynamics of U.S. indices at the close of trading in the United States.
Investors were optimistic about the published minutes of the November meeting of the U.S. Federal Reserve System. It is clear from the document that the vast majority of U.S. Central Bank executives support the view that the pace of base interest rate hike should slow down in the near future.
At the same time, the negative factor for the Asian stock markets is the uncertainty about the degree of strictness of the anti-covalent restrictions in China due to the new outbreak of coronavirus in the country.
“Asian markets are under pressure from the COVID-19 situation in China, where investors appear to be shunning local assets and commodities as the country faces a near-record number of coronavirus cases. Large-scale (anti-coVID – IF) restrictions will continue to adversely affect risk appetite and constrain macroeconomic indicators,” said ActivTrades analyst Anderson Alves.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was up 0.54% by 7:15 a.m. ksk, while Shanghai’s Shanghai Composite was down 0.1%.
The most significant rise on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange is shown by securities of Chinese real estate development companies: shares of Country Garden Holdings Co. Ltd. are up nearly 12%, Longfor Group Holdings Ltd. – by 9.3 percent and China Vanke Co. – up 4.5%. Traders reacted positively to messages from Chinese banks, including Bank of China Ltd., Agricultural Bank of China Ltd. and Bank of Communications Co. about their provision of new credit lines to developers.
Meanwhile, share prices of electronics maker Xiaomi Corp. are down 4 percent. The company unexpectedly posted a net loss in the third quarter and cut revenue by almost 10% on weakening demand for smartphones worldwide.
Japan’s Nikkei was up 1.1% by 7:20 a.m. Ksk.
Among the index components, IT company CyberAgent Inc. (+8.3%), logistics company Nippon Yusen K.K. (+6.1%) and energy company Tokyo Electric Power Co. Holdings Inc. Shares of semiconductor maker Advantest Corp. (+4.5%), online game developer NEXON Co. (+4%) and electronics equipment maker Tokyo Electron Ltd. (+3.7%) are also up actively.
South Korea’s Kospi Index was up 0.9 percent by 7:25 a.m. Ksk.
One of the world’s biggest chip and electronics maker Samsung Electronics Co. was up 0.7% and automaker Hyundai Motor rose 0.6%.
The Bank of Korea raised its key interest rate by 25 basis points to 3.25 percent a year at the end of Thursday’s meeting, the regulator said in a statement. Thus the South Korean Central Bank slowed the pace of tightening of monetary policy compared to October, when the rate was raised by 50 bps.
Australian S&P/ASX 200 index added 0.3%.
Share prices of the world’s largest mining companies BHP and Rio Tinto rose by 1.6% and 1.4%, respectively.
