Asian stocks mostly higher after Wall Street recovery
beijing — Asian stock markets rose on Tuesday after Wall Street sank on worries that the Trump administration might not do as much for businesses as once thought.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 gained one per cent to 19,174.56 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng advanced 0.5 per cent to 24,317.93. The Shanghai Composite Index declined 0.4 per cent to 3,255.11 while Sydney’s S&P-ASX 200 added 1.2 per cent to 5,816.60. Seoul’s Kospi rose 0.2 per cent to 2,159.54 and India’s Sensex advanced 0.5 per cent to 29,383.62. Benchmarks in Taiwan and Singapore rose while Malaysia and Manila declined. New Zealand was unchanged.
Worries that Washington may not be able to help businesses as much as once thought knocked Wall Street stock indexes down hard early Monday, but they clawed back most of their losses and ended the day mixed. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 2.39 points, or 0.1 per cent, to 2,341.59 for its seventh drop in the last eight days. The Dow Jones industrial average sank 45.74 points, or 0.2 per cent, to 20,550.98, while the Nasdaq composite index rose 0.2 per cent to 5,840.37.
When trading opened for the day, it looked as if losses would be much worse. The S&P 500 sank from the start and was down as much as 0.9 per cent.
Businesses disappointed
Last week’s failure by Republicans to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which they have pledged to do for years, raised doubts that Washington can push through other promised changes to help businesses. Investors have been anticipating that President Donald Trump and the Republican-led Congress will cut taxes, loosen regulations for companies and institute other corporate-friendly policies.
“Markets appear reluctant to take the Trump disappointment too much further at this stage,” Ric Spooner of CMC Markets said in a report. “With US economic growth showing signs of improvement and the Fed clearly embarked on a monetary tightening cycle, the significant correction that has already occurred in bonds and the US dollar may already reflect
Markets seem reluctant to take the Trump disappointment too much further at this stage
Ric Spooner, CMC Markets
an adequate wind back of the market’s Trump exuberance.”
South Korea’s central bank raised its estimate of economic growth in the final quarter of 2016 by 0.1 percentage point to 0.5 per cent over the previous quarter. The bank said government consumption and investment in construction and intellectual property products turned out better than advance figures indicated. Exports were revised up by 0.7 percentage point to 1.2 per cent. The central bank also revised up full-year 2016 economic growth by 0.1 per cent to 2.8 per cent, citing better construction investment and exports.
Oil prices have sagged below $50 — a boon to importers but a blow to developing countries that rely on crude sales to pay for imports.
The dollar was unchanged at 110.65 yen. The euro edged down to $1.0863 from $1.0864. — AP