Nikkei Rally Extended to Fourth Day, China Indexes Struggled

Arjun Pandit
13 Sep, 2023
New York City

Stocks in Asia traded mixed after the benchmark index in Tokyo advanced nearly 1% and in India traded hear record highs. 

The Nikkei index in Tokyo advanced as investors piled into banks on the hopes that the Bank of Japan will soon shift its yield curve management and close yield gap with other advanced economies. 

In Tuesday's trading. the yield on 20-year and 30-year Japanese Government Bonds rose as high as 1.47% and 1.725% respectively, highs not seen in nine years. 

The yield on newly issued 10-year Japanese Government Bond rose to 0.72%, a level not seen since 2014 after the Bank of Japan Governor signaled tolerance for higher rates last week. 

In economic news, Japan's producer price index, a measure of wholesale price inflation, declined for the eighth month in a row. 

Producer price index in Japan rose 3.2% from a year ago in August, slowing from a downwardly revised 3.4% increase in July and dropping to the lowest level since March 2021.

Market indexes in China lacked direction after indexes declined for five days in a row in Hong Kong.

The Hang Seng index traded as high as 1% in earlier trading before reversing the direction on the hopes that the recent restriction of new public offering by the Chinese regulators  may lift market indexes higher. 

The number of new listings in September have fallen to 8 from 37 in July and 33 in June, according to data available from Post, Bloomberg and KPMG. 

The new issue market in A-shares on Chinese exchanges raised about 30% less in the first half compared to last year, despite more companies completing public offering. 

 

Asia Market Indexes 

In Wednesday's trading, the Nikkei index increased 0.95% to 32,776.37, the Shanghai SSE Composite index jumped 0.2% to 3,137.06, the Hang Seng index declined 0.2% to 17,992.98 and the KOSPI index decreased 0.8% to 2,536.58

Stocks in Mumbai lacked direction and popular market indexes hovered near record highs. 

Consumer price inflation in August eased to 6.83% in August from 7.44% in July, the MOSPI reported Wednesday. 

The Sensex index decreased 18.16 points to 67,202.98 and the Nifty index fell 9.40 points to 19,986.30. 

On the Mumbai stock exchange, 83 stocks traded at their 52-week highs and 14 traded at their 52-week lows. 

In August, the Nikkei index fell 0.6%, the SSE Composite index declined 5.2%, the Hang Seng index fell 8.2% and the KOSPI index decreased 4.2%.