Asia-Pacific markets were mixed Wednesday morning, following a poor start to the trading month on Wall Street that saw major indexes fall amid rising Middle East tensions.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was up over 6% on Wednesday, hitting a 22-month high for a sixth day of gains amid further optimism about Beijing’s latest stimulus policies.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 fell back 843.21 points, or 2.2%, to 37,808.76.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng returned to trading with a massive gain of 1,310.05 points, or 6.2%, to 22,442.73. The market resumed trading on Wednesday after a holiday on Tuesday.
Property developers fueled much of the gains, with China Vanke, Logan Group, and Longfor Group leading, up as much as 61%, 30% and 24%, respectively.
Major cities in mainland China introduced some easing measures to enhance homebuyer confidence over the weekend. Chinese tech giants also rallied, with Meituan, Baidu and JD.com all up over 9%.
On Tuesday, new Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba took office following his election as head of the country’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party last week. He succeeded Prime Minister Fumio Kishida who formally stepped down earlier in the day.
Ishiba’s ascension could give the Bank of Japan more scope to raise interest rates further, according to some analysts. Stocks in Japan fell Monday as investors digested the news, before rebounding slightly on Tuesday.
However, newly appointed economy minister Ryosei Akazawa said Wednesday that Ishiba expects the central bank to cautiously evaluate the economy before hiking rates again,
In individual stocks news, Mitsubishi Motor was up 4.6% after Mitsubishi Motors North America reported a 22.1% increase in year-to-date sales compared to the same period last year. Mitsubishi Electric rose 1%.
Traders in Asia were assessing data on consumer inflation out of South Korea. The country’s consumer price index rose 1.6% in September from a year earlier, data showed Wednesday morning, cooler than expected by economists polled by Reuters who expected a rate of 1.9%.
The figure was up by 0.1% on a monthly basis, less than the gains of 0.4% in the previous month and the 0.3% expected by economists.
According to a survey from S&P Global released Wednesday, South Korea’s factory activity contracted at its fastest pace in 15 months in September as overseas demand slowed for the first time this year. The purchasing managers’ index for manufacturers stood at 48.3 in September, down from 51.9 a month prior.
In other markets,
Markets in Shanghai and Taiwan were shuttered for Golden Week holidays.
In Singapore, the Straits Times Index poked up 3.71 points, or 0.1%, to 3,584.67.
In Korea, the Kospi lost 31.58 points, or 1.2%, to 2,561.69
In New Zealand, the NZX 50 dropped 15 points, or 0.1%, to 12,451.69.
In Australia, the ASX 200 lost 10.74 points, or 0.1%, to 8,198.19
