Asia report: Most markets higher as Australia posts GDP shocker
Markets in Asia ended higher on Wednesday, with Australian investors seemingly ignoring unexpectedly weak GDP data, and Japan rising on the back of a SoftBank surge.
AUD/USD
$0.6519
05:40 26/04/24
GBP/NZD
NZD2.0984
05:39 26/04/24
Hang Seng
17,628.25
10:21 25/04/24
Nikkei 225
37,780.35
09:43 25/04/24
USD/JPY
¥156.0980
05:40 26/04/24
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 finished 0.74% higher at 18,496.69, lede by its fourth-largest component SoftBank, which jumped 6.2%.
The surge came after US President-elect Donald Trump announced the Japanese telecoms and technology firm was to invest $50bn in the United States and create around 50,000 jobs in the next four years.
Some media reports pointed out that documents from Trump’s meeting with SoftBank also included the Foxconn logo of iPhone maker Hon Hai Precision Industry, though it wasn’t clear what role that company would be playing in any deal.
Trump was castigated by technology commentators when he suggested as part of his presidential campaign that companies like Apple should start making their iPhones stateside.
In legislative news, the lower house of the National Diet passed a bill that would pave the way to legalised casinos, seeing gambling operators rise across the region.
The yen was weaker against the dollar, last slipping 0.03% to JPY 114.05 per $1.
On the mainland, the Shanghai Composite Index added 0.7% to 3,221.92, while the Shenzhen Composite Index was up 0.91% to 2,090.32.
South Korea’s Kospi edged up 0.1% to finish at 1,991.89, on a day that saw the country’s finance minister Yoo Il-ho report a softening of consumer sentiment as the political scandal surrounding the presidency continued.
Samsung Electronics managed a 1.37% gain after it emerged overnight that the US Supreme Court had ruled in its favour over damages claimed by Apple regarding smartphone design.
A lower court had previously awarded Apple $399m, after it claimed Samsung had infringed on iPhone design patents.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index finished up 0.55% to 22,800.92.
Oil prices were lower during Asian trading on Wednesday, falling further from drops on Tuesday after data showed the OPEC cartel and Russia produced a record amount of crude in November.
They picked up again as Europe took the trading baton, however, with Brent crude improving 0.24% to $54.06 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate up 0.18% to $51.02.
“With both Russia and OPEC producing at record amounts, the market is scratching its head about how both blocs will manage to comply with the Vienna production cut targets,” noted OANDA senior market analyst Jeffrey Halley.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 added 0.91% to finish at 5,478.10, with all sectors posting positive days apart from the energy subindex, which lost 0.71% after the lower oil prices.
The sunburnt country’s gross domestic product fell 0.5% quarter-on-quarter, according to fresh data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, though it advanced 1.8% year-on-year.
Both readings were well off Reuters-polled forecasts for a 0.3% rise quarter-on-quarter and a 2.5% increase year-on-year.
The quarterly decline was the largest since December 2008, and the first since a modest decline in March 2011, which could see it play a role in the Reserve Bank of Australia’s monetary policy decisions going forward.
“The main question is whether the result is just a pothole or the start of something more sinister,” said Commonwealth Bank of Australia chief economist Michael Blythe.
“We favour the 'pothole' analogy.
“A number of one-offs were at work: poor weather conditions and numbers are dominated by what was happening during the election period of June/July.”
Blythe said it was not surprising that some economic drivers weakened at the time.
“It should be easier for the economy to grow from here on.
“The income drag from falling commodity prices has ended and the spending drag from falling mining capital expenditure will soon be complete.”
Shares in New Zealand declined, with the S&P/NZX 50 losing 0.3% to finish at 6,889.77, led lower by health technology group Orion Health, which lost 5.7%.
The stock has plunged 34% since reporting its first-half results last Monday.
It was a mixed picture for the down under dollars, with the Kiwi strengthening 0.2% to NZD 1.4017 and the Aussie 0.12% weaker at AUD 1.3419 per $1.