Major Asian stock indices continue to rise and have already gained 2.62%. Yet, Hong Kong's Hang Seng was the only index to show such impressive gains.Others added up to 1%: China's Shanghai Composite and Shenzhen Composite rose by 0.7% and 0.38% respectively. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.65%, while Japan's Nikkei 225 went up by almost the same amount of 0.59%. The South Korea Stock Exchange is closed today for a public holiday. Yesterday, Korea's KOSPI closed the session with a loss of 0.11%.
As expected, indices of the Asia-Pacific region followed the trajectory of the US stock market. The latter advanced after Fed Chair Jerome Powell confirmed the central bank's commitment to fighting inflation and bringing it back to the 2% target. His words intensified expectations of a 0.75% rate hike at the September meeting.
On Thursday, the ECB decided to raise the three key ECB interest rates by 75 basis points. The EU regulator also announced it was ready to introduce more rate hikes if this was required to tackle rising inflation.
The recent data from China showed that inflation slowed down by 2.5% in August after rising by 2.7% in July. Experts predicted a 2.8% rise in consumer prices. The reason behind the slowdown is a drop in consumer activity caused by new lockdown measures.
China's PPI recovered by 2.3% in August from the previous year. This is the smallest advance of this indicator in the past year and a half. Analysts expected a decline to 3.1% from 4.2% recorded in July.
The following Chinese companies posted gains: Country Garden Holdings Co. Ltd. (+15%), Country Garden Services Holdings Co. Ltd. (+9.5%), and Longfor Group Holdings Ltd. (+6.1%).
Among the components of the Japanese Nikkei 225, the shares of Nippon Yusen K.K. (+3.6%), M3 Inc. (+3.3%), and Dowa Holdings Co. Ltd. (+2.8%) were among the best performers.
The shares of other companies showed a mixed dynamic: Fast Retailing gained 0.6% while Nissan Motor shed 0.9%.
Among the Australian S&P/ASX 200 components, BHP (+2.5%) and Rio Tinto (+2.2%) saw their share prices rise.
