Frankfurt/Tokyo (Reuters) – Speculation about falling interest rates in the USA next year gave investors in Asia confidence in the middle of the week.
The Bank of Japan (BoJ) continued to contribute to the positive mood, with its ultra-loose policy the day before monetary policy had stayed on course. “There was no indication from BoJ central bank chief Kazuo Ueda on the timing of the bank’s exit from negative interest rate policy,” said Shuutarou Yasuda, market analyst at Tokai Tokyo Research Institute. Speculation about a change in BoJ policy had previously weighed on the Japanese stock market. “Now that caution has weakened.”
In Tokyo, the Nikkei index rose 1.4 percent to 33,676 points, reaching its highest level in more than five months. Among the individual stocks, the shares of the Fast Retailing group, to which the fashion chain Uniqlo belongs, and the manufacturer of silicon wafers Shin-Etsu Chemical each rose by around four percent.
The Shanghai stock exchange and the index of the most important companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen, however, each fell around one percent. Investors were disappointed that further government aid was not in sight.
Below is an overview of the price changes for selected stock indices and currencies:
Indices status change
in percent
Nikkei
33,675.94 +1.4
Topix
2,349.38 +0.7
Shanghai
2,902.11 -1.0
CSI300
3,297.50 -1.1
Hang Seng
16,579.28 +0.5
Kospi
2,614.30 +1.8
Euro dollar
1.0964
pounds/dollars
1.2660
Dollar/Yen
143.51
Dollar/franc
0.8609
Dollar/Yuan
7.1348
dollars/won
1,299.82
(Report by Stella Qiu and Junko Fujita, written by Katharina Loesche and Stefanie Geiger, edited by Jörn Poltz. If you have any questions, please contact our editorial team at [email protected] (for politics and economics) or frankfurt.newsroom@ thomsonreuters.com (for companies and markets)