Shares in Asia-Pacific were mixed on Wednesday, with Japanese stocks leading losses regionally.
Japanese markets returned from holiday, with the Nikkei 225 collapsing 471.45 points, or 1.6%, to 29,302.66.
The Japanese yen traded at 114.88 per U.S. dollar, having weakened from below 114.5 against the greenback earlier this week.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng recovered 33.92 points, or 0.1%, to 24,685.50.
Singapore’s economy grew 7.1% in the third quarter as compared with a year ago, according to the Ministry of Trade and Industry. It was higher than an earlier official advance estimate for 6.5% year-on-year growth.
In other central bank developments, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand on Wednesday announced its decision to raise the official cash rate to 0.75%, in line with expectations of most economists in a Reuters poll.
Following the RBNZ’s announcement, the New Zealand dollar tumbled nearly to $0.6916, against levels around $0.7 seen earlier in the week.
The Australian dollar was at $0.722, still off levels above $0.73 seen last week.
In other markets
In China, the CSI 300 eked up 3.31 points, or 0.1%, to 4,918.66
In Taiwan, the Taiex sank 23.8 points, or 0.1%, to 17,642.52
In Singapore, the Straits Times Index dipped 9.55 points, or 0.3%, to 3,227.53
In Korea, the Kospi index deleted 3.04 points, or 0.1%, to 2,994.29
In New Zealand, the NZX 50 gained 78.26 points, or 0.6%, to 12,766.79
In Australia, the ASX 200 dropped 11.12 points, or 0.2%, at 7,399.44
