Asian markets struggled for direction Tuesday, with Australian stocks lifted by news of lower-than-expected inflation, while Chinese and Hong Kong shares dropped on lingering concerns Beijing could soon raise interest rates.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index climbed 119.31 points, or 1.2%, to 10,464.40
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dropped 12.95 points, or 0.1%, to 23,788.80
Solid gains on Wall Street drove broad-based gains in Tokyo, led by exporters. There was little reaction to the Bank of Japan’s widely expected decision to keep its policy interest-rate target unchanged, in a 0%-0.1% range. Sony Corp. rose 2.3% and Toyota Motor Corp. rose 1.5%.
In Hong Kong, Cnooc shed 0.6% and China Coal Energy Co. dropped 0.9%.
The Sydney market was lifted by benign inflation data, which snuffed out the risk of a near-term interest-rate hike by the Reserve Bank of Australia. The country’s fourth-quarter consumer-price index rose 0.4% on quarter and 2.7% on year, compared with economists’ expectations for a 0.7% on-quarter rise and a 3.0% on-year increase.
Resource- and retail-sector stocks led the rise, with Rio Tinto advancing 0.5% and Fortescue Metals Group climbing 0.9%, while Woolworths rose 1.6%.
Shares of Virgin Blue Holdings fell 2.4% after the airline issued a profit warning for the fiscal first half, citing the recent severe floods in the Queensland state and an outage of its booking system that disrupted flights in September.
Some traders, however, said gains were likely to be limited due to lingering concerns of further policy tightening in China.
Chip-related stocks ended higher on Intel’s decision to buy back another $10 billion U.S. in stock.
Elpida Memory rose 2.3% and Renesas Electronics Corp. added 1.4% in Tokyo. Samsung Electronics rose 0.4% in Seoul and Inotera Memories soared 6.9% in Taipei.
In foreign-exchange markets, the euro was fetching $1.3655 U.S. from $1.3638 U.S. late Monday in New York, and 112.56 yen from ¥112.55. The dollar was at ¥82.44, from ¥82.47.
CHINA
Chinese stocks fell on weak commodity prices and on worries about further tightening measures.
Shanghai’s CSI 300 Index subsided 15.58 points, or 0.5%, to 2,938.65.
Resource-sector shares led declines in Shanghai on weakness in global commodity prices, with PetroChina Co. falling 0.8%, Aluminum Corp. of China Ltd. falling 2.7% and Zijin Mining Group Co. shrinking 3.1%.
In other markets
Korea’s Kospi Index added 4.51 points, or 0.2%, to 2,086.67
Taiwan’s Taiex Index moved forward 43.60 points, or 0.5%, to 8.991.39
Singapore’s Straits Times Index eased 4.61 points, or 0.1%, to 3,181.15
New Zealand’s NZX 50 added 6.41 points, or 0.2%, to 3,359.07
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index progressed 21.80 points, or 0.5%, to 4,807.80
