TOKYO/HONG KONG (Dow Jones)–Positive signs predominated on the stock exchanges in East Asia and Australia on Wednesday after Wall Street closed somewhat firmer the evening before. Investors continue to rely on the US Federal Reserve to cut interest rates soon. Stocks in the technology sector in particular benefited from this in Asia.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 index advanced 1.1 percent. Among the individual stocks, Softbank gained 4.2 percent. The stocks benefited from the upcoming allocation of a billion-dollar share package from the mobile phone provider T-Mobile US. The US subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom says it will issue 48.8 million shares to Softbank.
The Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong rose by 1.9 percent (late trading) on the first trading day after the Christmas break. Shares in online game manufacturers appeared to have recovered significantly from their price slumps on Friday after Beijing somewhat softened its plans for stricter regulation of the industry. Netease improved by 10.3 percent and Tencent by 3.9 percent.
On the Shanghai stock market, the composite index rose by 0.5 percent, supported by encouraging economic data. Starting from a low comparison base in the previous year, Chinese industrial profits rose sharply in November. Although there was a decline in the first eleven months of the current year, it slowed down compared to the January to October period.
The Seoul stock exchange was slowed down somewhat by the fact that many shares were traded ex-dividend. Among other things, Lotte Shopping fell by 6.7 percent and Samsung Life by 7.1 percent. The leading index Kospi closed 0.4 percent higher, supported by heavyweight Samsung Electronics, which rose 1.8 percent thanks to strong US guidance. Posco Holdings rose 4.0 percent after the steelmaker announced a joint venture in South Korea to produce gases used in the production of semiconductors.
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Index (stock market) last +/- % % YTD end
S&P/ASX 200 (Sydney) 7,561.20 +0.8% +7.4% 06:00
Nikkei-225 (Tokyo) 33,681.24 +1.1% +27.6% 07:00
Kospi (Seoul) 2,613.50 +0.4% +16.9% 07:00
Shanghai Comp. 2,914.61 +0.5% -5.7% 08:00
Hang-Seng (Hongk.) 17,042.88 +1.9% -17.4% 09:00
Straits-Times (Sing.) 3,168.80 +0.9% -3.4% 10:00
KLCI (Malaysia) 1,454.69 +0.3% -3.0% 10:00
FOREX last +/- % 00:00 Fri, 8:30% YTD
EUR/USD 1.1047 +0.0% 1.1042 1.1005 +3.2%
EUR/JPY 157.67 +0.3% 157.22 156.50 +12.3%
EUR/GBP 0.8676 -0.0% 0.8677 0.8665 -2.0%
GBP/USD 1.2733 +0.1% 1.2723 1.2701 +5.3%
USD/JPY 142.73 +0.2% 142.40 142.20 +8.9%
USD/KRW 1,293.95 -0.4% 1,299.36 1,300.91 +2.5%
USD/CNY 7.1450 +0.0% 7.1434 7.1451 +3.6%
USD/CNH 7.1493 +0.1% 7.1442 7.1491 +3.2%
USD/HKD 7.8115 +0.0% 7.8107 7.8141 +0.0%
AUD/USD 0.6834 +0.1% 0.6824 0.6783 +0.3%
NZD/USD 0.6331 +0.0% 0.6328 0.6283 -0.3%
Bitcoin
BTC/USD 42,434.30 -0.1% 42,472.91 44,004.06 +155.6%
ROHOEL most recently VT-Settlem. +/-% +/- USD% YTD
WTI/Nymex 75.51 75.57 -0.1% -0.06 -1.0%
Brent/ICE 81.12 81.07 +0.1% +0.05 -0.1%
METALS last day previous +/- % +/- USD % YTD
Gold (spot) 2,065.78 2,068.29 -0.1% -2.51 +13.3%
Silver (spot) 24.15 24.23 -0.3% -0.08 +0.8%
Platinum (spot) 981.58 981.50 +0.0% +0.08 -8.1%
Copper future 3.92 3.90 +0.5% +0.02 +3.1%
YTD based on the closing price of the previous day
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 27, 2023 02:16 ET (07:16 GMT)