Asia-Pacific stocks mixed as investors await U.S. inflation data

Key Points

• Shares in Asia-Pacific were mixed in Thursday morning trade.
• The Reserve Bank of India is set to announce its interest rate decision at 12:30 p.m. HK/SIN on Thursday.
• The U.S. consumer price index report is set to be released Thursday stateside.

SINGAPORE — Shares in Asia-Pacific were mixed in Thursday morning trade as investors await the release of U.S. consumer inflation data.

Mainland Chinese stocks were lower in morning trade, with the Shanghai composite down 0.19% while the Shenzhen component dipped 0.137%.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index, on the other hand, advanced 0.44%. Hong Kong-listed shares of China Evergrande Group soared more than 4% in Thursday morning trade. The embattled developer aims to deliver 600,000 apartments in 2022, but was not looking to a fire sale of its assets to clear its debts, Reuters reported Wednesday.

The Nikkei 225 in Japan gained 0.14% while the Topix index slipped fractionally. South Korea’s Kospi shed 0.17%.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 climbed 0.21%.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific stocks outside Japan traded 0.31% higher.

Looking ahead, the Reserve Bank of India is set to announce its interest rate decision at 12:30 p.m. HK/SIN on Thursday.

Ahead of that announcement, the Indian rupee was at 74.778 per dollar, stronger than levels close to 75 seen against the greenback earlier this month.

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The U.S. consumer price index report is also set to be released Thursday stateside.

Overnight stateside, the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 305.28 points to 35,768.06 while the S&P 500 gained 1.45% to 4,587.18. The Nasdaq Composite outperformed, surging 2.08% to 14,490.37.

TICKER	COMPANY	NAME	PRICE	CHANGE	%CHANGE
.N225	Nikkei 225 Index	*NIKKEI	27598.11	18.24	0.07
.HSI	Hang Seng Index	*HSI	24695.61	-134.38	-0.54
.AXJO	S&P/ASX 200	*ASX 200	7269.9	1.6	0.02
.SSEC	Shanghai	*SHANGHAI	3477.32	-2.63	-0.08
.KS11	KOSPI Index	*KOSPI	2767.51	-1.34	-0.05
.FTFCNBCA	CNBC 100 ASIA IDX	*CNBC 100	9945.5	-6.94	-0.07

Currencies and oil

The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 95.586.

The Japanese yen traded at 115.50 per dollar, still weaker than levels below 115 seen against the greenback earlier this week. The Australian dollar was at $0.7168, largely holding on to gains after its climb from below $0.712 earlier in the week.

Oil prices were lower in the morning of Asia trading hours, with international benchmark Brent crude futures down 0.23% to $91.34 per barrel. U.S. crude futures shed 0.03% to $89.63 per barrel.

Source : CNBC