A general view of the Shanghai Securities Exchange building is being shown in Shanghai, China, on July 16, 2024.
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SINGAPORE — Asia-Pacific markets traded higher on Thursday, following gains on Wall Street that saw the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average reach new records as investors shrugged off geopolitical concerns.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 ended the day up 0.43% to reach 8,223 points. South Korea’s Kospi gained 0.34% to end at 2,603.25, while the small-cap Kosdaq was down 0.22% to 776.52.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 was up 0.26% to end at 39,380.89, while the broad-based Topix gained 0.2% to end at 2,71267.
Traders in Asia were assessing September data on producer prices in Japan which rose 2.8% from a year ago. Economists polled by Reuters had predicted the inflation rate would come in at 2.3%, down from 2.5% in August.
Investors also assessed quarterly earnings report from Japanese retailer Seven & i Holdings Co. after it received a revised buyout offer from Alimentation Couche-Tard.
Seven & i slashed its operating profit outlook for the 12 months through to the end of February, as well as its net profit forecast. Seven & i shares ended the trading day down 0.43% on Thursday.
The mainland CSI 300 closed over 1% higher at 3,997.78, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was up 2.8% as of its last hour of trading.
China’s central bank said it began accepting applications from financial institutions to join a newly created liquidity tool — initially worth 500 billion yuan ($70.7 billion) — that will provide easier access to capital for the stock market.
The rebound in Chinese stocks comes after a market rally stalled on Wednesday. The CSI 300 broke a 10-day winning streak to drop 7%. The rally had been triggered by a blitz of government stimulus measures at the end of September.
China’s Finance Ministry will hold a press briefing on Oct. 12, during which they may provide additional insights into fiscal policy and economic development.
Speaking to “Street Signs Asia” on Thursday, Chetan Ahya, Chief Asia Economist at Morgan Stanley, said that Beijing would need to announce a 10 trillion yuan ($1.4 trillion) fiscal stimulus focused on boosting consumption to create a sustained turn around in investor confidence.
“That’s not what we are saying they’ll do, but we think that they’ll need something like that to get the economy out of deflation,” Ahya said.
Overnight in the U.S., the S&P 500 rallied 0.71% to end at 5,792.04 after hitting an all-time high, while the 30-stock Dow surged 431.63 points, or 1.03%, to reach 42,512 for a record close. The Nasdaq Composite gained 0.6% to end at 18,291.62.
Wall Street maintained its gains after the release of minutes from the Federal Reserve’s September meeting, in which it cut by a half percentage point, revealed that a “substantial majority of participants” had favored reducing interest rates by the larger amount.
The strong trading day also came despite lingering fears of a broader war in the Middle East as Israel promises to launch a retaliatory strike against Iran.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics will publish its September data on consumer prices on Thursday morning in the U.S. Economists polled by Reuters expect core inflation to hold steady at 3.2% year-on-year.
— CNBC’s Samantha Subin and Sarah Min contributed to this report.
