Asian markets fluctuated between gains and losses Monday as investors took a step back after last week’s rally fuelled by the Federal Reserve’s interest rate cut. Tokyo led the winners after Japan’s central bank said it would sell off its huge stock of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) gradually, having sparked a sell-off Friday by announcing plans to offload the holdings as part of a shift away from its loose monetary policy. Investors also took some heart from talks between Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Friday that the US president said “made progress on many very important issues” including a deal to sell blockbuster social media app TikTok. He added that the pair would meet Xi on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea at the end of next month and that he would travel to China next year. “While lacking apparent substance… it does look to have helped create a positive atmosphere to enable extention of the ongoing US-China detente,” said National Australia Bank’s Ray Attrill.
Equities have enjoyed a healthy run-up in recent months on optimism that the US central bank will lower borrowing costs as worries over a softening labour market trump stubbornly high inflation. Tokyo was the stand-out performer Monday, rising more than one percent, after the Bank of Japan said it would sell its ETFs — bought as part of a campaign of monetary easing aimed at kickstarting the sluggish economy — gradually. Its announcement Friday that it planned to offload its stockpile sent shivers through Japanese markets, sending the Nikkei sharply lower. Monday’s gains came after officials said they would trim the holdings steadily, at a pace observers said would take around 100 years to complete. There were also gains in Shanghai, Sydney, Seoul, Singapore and Taipei, while Hong Kong, Wellington, Manila and Jakarta fell. The mixed day followed another record performance on Wall Street. Key figures at around 0230 GMT
Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 1.5 percent at 45,729.33 (break) Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 0.8 percent at 26,344.78 Shanghai – Composite: UP 0.1 percent at 3,822.08 Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1729 from $1.1745 on Friday Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3461 from $1.3472 Dollar/yen: UP at 148.33 yen from 147.90 yen Euro/pound: DOWN at 87.14 pence from 87.18 pence West Texas Intermediate: UP 0.5 percent at $63.02 per barrel Brent North Sea Crude: UP 0.6 percent at $67.09 per barrel New York – Dow: UP 0.4 percent at 46,315.27 (close) London – FTSE 100: DOWN 0.1 percent at 9,216.67 (close)
Source: AFP
