Asia-Pacific markets mostly rebounded on Thursday from the sell-off a day ago, except for Japan’s Nikkei 225.
The Nikkei was the only outlier, falling marginally, while the broad based Topix was up 0.45% after the release of Japan’s July wage data.
Average monthly cash earnings in the country rose 3.6% year-on-year, a softer rise compared to the 4.5% climb seen in June.
Real wages climbed 0.4% year-on-year, the second straight month of increase after the 1.1% rise in June.
A strong pay report would give the Bank of Japan more room for a rate hike, which could put pressure on equities.
Other economic data coming from the region include retail sales numbers from Singapore.
Separately, Australian telecom operator Optus has received the green light from the country’s Competition and Consumer Commission for its proposed regional network and spectrum sharing agreement with rival TPG Telecom.
Optus, which is owned by Singapore’s Singtel, announced the agreement in April, after having lobbied against a similar merger between TPG and Telstra, Australia’s largest telco.
| TICKER | COMPANY | NAME | PRICE | CHANGE | %CHANGE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
.N225
|
Nikkei 225 Index | *NIKKEI | 36917.44 | -130.17 | -0.35 |
|
.HSI
|
Hang Seng Index | *HSI | 17449.7 | -7.64 | -0.04 |
|
.AXJO
|
S&P/ASX 200 | *ASX 200 | 7966.5 | 16 | 0.2 |
|
.SSEC
|
Shanghai | *SHANGHAI | 2785.19 | 0.91 | 0.03 |
|
.KS11
|
KOSPI Index | *KOSPI | 2592.6 | 11.8 | 0.46 |
|
.FTFCNBCA
|
CNBC 100 ASIA IDX | *CNBC 100 | 9782.18 | 63.44 | 0.65 |
South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.79%, while the small cap Kosdaq was 0.21% higher.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 climbed 0.31%. Exports from the country in July rose 0.7% month-on-month while imports slipped 0.8% compared to last month.
Hong Kong Hang Seng index slipped 0.14%, while the mainland Chinese CSI 300 was marginally up.
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In the U.S., the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite was down for a second straight session.
The broad based index lost 0.16%, while the tech heavy index slipped 0.3%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was the outlier, edging up 0.09%.
