Asia-Pacific markets mostly rose on Wednesday as the Reserve Bank of New Zealand cut benchmark lending rates and Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced that he would step down in September.
Kishida said he would not run for re-election as the Liberal Democratic Party leader, pledging his support to the new LDP leader, according to a Reuters translation of his statement in Japanese.
The Nikkei 225 index continued its rise, picking up 209.92 points, or 0.6%, to 36,442.43.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index fell 60.7 points, or 0.4%, to 17,113.36.
In Japan, business sentiment at manufacturers turned slightly less confident in August compared with the month before, according to the Reuters Tankan survey.
The Tankan survey — which tracks the Bank of Japan’s quarterly survey of the same name — showed that the sentiment index for manufacturers slipped to +10 in August, while the non manufacturers index fell to +24. Both metrics stood at +11 and +26 in July’s survey.
This was due to lackluster demand from China, which weighed on corporate sentiment, Reuters reported, noting that this survey also comes after the Bank of Japan raised its benchmark interest rates in July to their highest level since 2008.
Australian markets moved higher. The country’s stock regulator is suing the ASX for “making misleading statements” related to its Clearing House Electronic Subregister System, or CHESS, a computer system used to settle trades on the exchange.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission pointed out the ASX had said the replacement project for CHESS was “on track”, but at the time of the announcements, “the project was not tracking to plan and ASX did not have any reasonable basis to imply the project was on track to meet future milestones.”
In other markets,
In Shanghai, the CSI 300 declined 25.15 points, or 0.8%, to 3,309.24.
In Taiwan, the Taiex index hiked 230.68 points, or 1.1%, to 22,027.25.
In Singapore, the Straits Times Index recovered 27.71 points, or 0.9%, to 3,266.28.
In Korea, the Kospi index grabbed 23 points, or 0.9%, to 2,644,50.
In New Zealand, the NZX 50 popped 253.48 points, or 2.1%, to 12,572.54.
In Australia, the ASX 200 gained 23.86 points, or 0.3%, to 7,850.70.
