Asia-Pacific markets mostly rose on Wednesday as the Reserve Bank of New Zealand cut benchmark lending rates and Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced that he would step down in September.
Kishida said he would not run for reelection as the Liberal Democratic Party leader, pledging his support to the new LDP leader, according to a Reuters translation of his statement in Japanese.
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand unexpectedly cut its benchmark cash rate to 5.25%. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the central bank would maintain rates at 5.5%.
In South Korea, the country’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell to 2.5% from 2.8% in July, hitting its lowest point since October 2023.
In Japan, business sentiment at manufacturers turned slightly less confident in August compared with the month before, according to the Reuters Tankan survey.
The Tankan survey — which tracks the Bank of Japan’s quarterly survey of the same name — showed that the sentiment index for manufacturers slipped to +10 in August, while the non manufacturers index fell to +24. Both metrics stood at +11 and +26 in July’s survey.
This was due to lackluster demand from China, which weighed on corporate sentiment, Reuters reported, noting that this survey also comes after the Bank of Japan raised its benchmark interest rates in July to their highest level since 2008.
Japan’s Nikkei 225
climbed 0.58% to close at 36,442.43 after Kishida’s announcement, while the broad-based Topix rose 1.11% to 2,581.9. Both indexes notched their third straight day of gains.
South Korea’s Kospi
ended 0.88% higher at 2,644.5, while the small-cap Kosdaq jumped 1.56% to close at 776.83.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 saw a smaller rise of 0.31%, ending at 7,850.7.
The country’s stock regulator is suing the ASX for “making misleading statements” related to its Clearing House Electronic Subregister System, or CHESS, a computer system used to settle trades on the exchange.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission pointed out the ASX had said the replacement project for CHESS was “on track”, but at the time of the announcements, “the project was not tracking to plan and ASX did not have any reasonable basis to imply the project was on track to meet future milestones.”
In contrast to the rest of Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index
inched down 0.55% in its final hour of trade, while mainland China’s CSI 300 fell 0.75% to hit a near seven-month low of 3,309.24.
Overnight in the U.S., stocks rallied and moved closer to last month’s record levels after data showed producer prices rose less than expected for July.
The producer price index — a measure of wholesale inflation — increased 0.1% last month. Economists expected the reading to show a monthly gain of 0.2% in July, in line with the previous month’s reading, according to Dow Jones consensus estimates.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 1.04%, at 39,765.64, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite jumped 2.43%.
The S&P 500 added 1.68%, coming to roughly less than 5% from its record high set in July.
Investors will shift their attention to the July consumer price index figures from the U.S. due Wednesday.
