TOKYO/HONG KONG/SHANGHAI/SYDNEY (dpa-AFX) – The Asian stock exchanges continued to rise on Thursday after interest rate signals from the US Federal Reserve. Gains on Wall Street following statements by Fed Chair Jerome Powell supported prices.
The top US monetary authority had indicated that December might be the time for more moderate rate hikes. At previous meetings, the Fed had repeatedly hiked interest rates by 0.75 percentage points.
However, the increases remained manageable. “Powell let it be known that the December meeting was the time to take our foot off the gas pedal,” said Landesbank Baden-Württemberg. “However, the market observers had already expected almost unanimously that after a series of four interest rate hikes of 75 basis points each at the end of the year, only one 50-point step would follow.”
Chinese economic data also provided no reason for euphoria. Although the Caixin index for the manufacturing sector rose slightly from 49.2 points in October to 49.4 points in November, it remained in the contraction area.
On the other hand, other news from China gave hope. After protests against the strict corona measures, China’s Deputy Prime Minister spoke of a “new stage of the pandemic”, triggering renewed speculation about possible easing. The rigorous measures taken by the authorities in response to the new corona wave led to protests in several million metropolises over the weekend. It was the largest public demonstration of discontent in China in decades.
The CSI 300 index (CSI 300) with the 300 most important Chinese companies on the mainland stock exchanges recently gained 1.1 percent to 3894.77 points. Hong Kong SAR’s Hang Seng Index (Hang Seng) rose 1.47 percent to 18,879.66, benefiting from gains on the Nasdaq.
The Japanese stock market also rose. The leading index Nikkei 225 rose by 0.92 percent to 28,226 points. The Australian S&P ASX 200 gained 0.96 percent to 7354.42 points./mf/mis