Asia-Pacific shares were mixed on Tuesday as strong rallies from Chinese real estate companies and Australian miners were offset by muted Japanese and Hong Kong markets.
The Nikkei 225 shed 2.87 points to 28,868.91.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index dropped 210.34 points, or 1.1%, to 19,830.52.
Chinese real estate stocks surged after reports that Beijing told state-owned China Bond Insurance Co. to provide guarantees for onshore bond issuance by “model private developers,” including Hong Kong-listed Longfor Group.
Even though the Hang Seng index was down as major stocks across the bourse — including Tencent, Ping An Insurance and Petrochina fell, there were green shoots among Chinese developers like Longfor.
Longfor shares rose 11% while top developer Country Garden leapt 9%. The rally is also strong across China Resources Land with a 3.2% rise, R&F Properties up 1.3% and China Vanke, which rose 1.7%.
Australian markets increased, with the major miners all posting strong returns led by BHP’s rise of 4.1% following a sterling full-year profit result.
CHINA
In Shanghai, the CSI 300 fell 7.84 points, or 0.2%, to 4,177.84.
China still needs more growth policies to stabilize its economy after the central bank moved unexpectedly to cut its key interest rates, the
Chinese central-bank backed Financial News said on Tuesday.
The People’s Bank of China lowered the rate on its 1-year policy loans by 10 basis points to 2.75% and the seven-day reverse repo rate to 2% from 2.1% on Monday. It defied economists expectations that the central bank would act on rate cuts.
In other markets
In Taiwan, the Taiex eked up 3.22 points to 15,420.57.
In Korea, markets returned to trading as the Kospi index eked out a gain of 5.58 points, or 0.2%, to 2,533.52
In Singapore, the Straits Times Index dropped 7.84 points, or 0.2%, to 3,253.79.
In Australia, the ASX 200 gained 41.05 points, or 0.6%, to 11,847.15.
In New Zealand, the NZX jumped 58.12 points, or 0.5%, to 11,847.15
