Asia-Pacific markets fall as Australia reports higher-than-expected inflation

Soegeefx AppsAsia MarketAsia-Pacific markets fall as Australia reports higher-than-expected inflation

thumbnail

Lim Hui Jie

Key Points

  • Australia’s CPI rose 3.5% year on year, slightly above the 3.4% rise expected by economists polled by Reuters and compared to 3.8% in June.
  • Minutes of the Reserve Bank of Australia’s last meeting revealed that the central bank had considered raising interest rates in its bid to tame inflation.

Asia-Pacific markets fell on Wednesday, as investors assessed Australia’s July inflation numbers, which came in higher than expected.

Australia’s CPI rose 3.5% year on year, slightly above the 3.4% expected by economists polled by Reuters and compared to 3.8% in June. The latest CPI figure is the lowest since March.

Minutes of the Reserve Bank of Australia’s last meeting revealed that the central bank had considered raising interest rates as it strives to tame inflation.

TICKER  COMPANY  NAME  PRICE  CHANGE  %CHANGE 
.N225 Nikkei 225 Index *NIKKEI 38324.6 35.98 0.09
.HSI Hang Seng Index *HSI 17691.68 -182.99 -1.02
.AXJO S&P/ASX 200 *ASX 200 8059.9 -11.3 -0.14
.SSEC Shanghai *SHANGHAI 2836.09 -12.64 -0.44
.KS11 KOSPI Index *KOSPI 2682.83 -6.42 -0.24
.FTFCNBCA CNBC 100 ASIA IDX *CNBC 100 10031.3 29.81 0.3

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was 0.7% down after the CPI release.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.14%, while the broad-based Topix fell marginally.

South Korea’s Kospi slipped 0.51%, and small-cap Kosdaq slipped 0.08%.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index and mainland China’s CSI 300 lost 0.11% and 0.03%, respectively.

Chinese online retailer JD.com announced a $5 billion buyback late Tuesday, prompting a 2.24% jump in its U.S.-listed shares, while the firm’s Hong Kong listed shares inched up 0.98%.

Overnight in the U.S., all three major indexes finished higher as investors looked toward tech giant Nvidia’s earnings report due Wednesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average inching up 0.02% to end at another record close of 41,250.5.

The S&P 500 and the tech heavy Nasdaq Composite crept up 0.2% to end at 17,754.82.

Source : cnbc

Comments are closed.

This will close in 0 seconds