Asia-Pacific markets rose after BOJ raised the benchmark rate
Istanbul, July 31 (Hibya) - Asia-Pacific markets rose Wednesday as investors assessed China’s business activity data. Japan’s Nikkei 225 reversed course to log gains after the country’s central bank raised benchmark interest rates to around 0.25 percent.
This marks the first time since December 2008 that Japan’s benchmark interest rate has been higher than 0.1 percent.
China’s factory activity contracted slightly faster in July, with the official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index at 49.4, down from 49.5 in June.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.24 percent, reversing earlier losses, while the broad-based Topix gained 0.37 percent. The country’s retail sales climbed 3.7 percent year on year in June, beating expectations of a 3.2 percent rise from economists.
South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.58 percent, with heavyweight Samsung Electronics up 1.6 percent as the firm reported a whopping 1,458.2 percent year-on-year rise in second-quarter operating profit. The small-cap Kosdaq was down 0.78 percent
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was up 1.30 percent, the Hong Kong Hang Seng index was up 1.9 percent, leading Asian markets, and mainland China’s CSI 300 was up nearly 2 percent.
The broad market index lost 0.5 percent, while the Nasdaq Composite tumbled 1.28 percent. In contrast, the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.5 percent.
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