On Tuesday Asian shares closed mostly higher having received a boost from Wall Street, with many market players shrugging off
Friday’s downbeat U.S. jobs data as they returned from holiday.
However, decisions by central banks in Australia and India to hold their monetary policy unchanged rattled local markets.
The Shanghai Composite Index added 2.5% at 3,961.378, while Taiwan’s benchmark gained 0.4% to 9641.90.
Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average rose 1.3% to 19,640.54.
South Korea’s Kospi ended marginally higher at 2,047.03.
“The positive spin put on the bad jobs report in the U.S. - that the
Fed may put off its planned rate increase until later this year - is
entirely justified,” said Kenichi Hirano, chief executive at Tokyo-based
K Asset Management.
“The central bank may not feel the need to make any tightening move until well into 2016, given the unimpressive economic data,” he added.
Stocks in Australia and New Zealand lost some ground in afternoon trading following the Reserve Bank of Australia’s decision to stick to interest rates which are at 2.25%, indicating that further easing may yet be appropriate.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 dropped abruptly on the announcement,
but ended 0.5% higher for the day at 5,926.00, while the New Zealand’s
NZX-50 was less affected, closing up 0.4% at 5,855.436.
A lot of analysts had expected the central bank to announce the rate cut today.
“We expect (Australian economic) growth to remain below trend and forecast another 25 basis point rate cut in May,” said Nomura Securities analyst Lewis Alexander in a client note.
Also on Tuesday, the Reserve Bank of India said that it would keep its key rate unchanged at 7.5%. The RBI decided not to keep monetary policy relaxed, but warned it will watch consumer inflation closely.
It added that it sees consumer prices cooling in the summer and picking up strength later in the year, to end the year at 5.8%.
Impacted by the RBI decision, Indian shares declined with Mumbai’s Sensex index last seen down 0.7% at 28,294.20.
