Asia trades higher; Japanese stocks waver amid yen strength
Japanese markets see-sawed in the morning session on Thursday, as stocks came under some pressure from a relatively stronger yen.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 wavered between gains and losses before trading up 0.23 percent. The Topix was up 0.23 percent.
The Japanese yen traded at 101.11 as of 11:18 a.m. HK/SIN, coming off levels as low as 101.35 and hitting a session high of 100.84. The yen strengthened in recent days as some investors were left disappointed by details of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s fiscal stimulus plan which followed on the heels of a lower-than-expected monetary policy stimulus announced by the Bank of Japan.
Rest of Asian markets traded mostly higher.
Australia’s benchmark ASX 200 was up 0.46 percent, with the energy sub-index rallying some 2 percent following the overnight rebound in oil prices. In South Korea, the Kospi was higher by 0.22 percent. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index was up 0.58 percent.
Chinese mainland markets traded mixed, with the Shanghai composite lower by 0.19 percent and the Shenzhen composite up 0.36 percent.
Stateside, U.S. stocks closed slightly higher, with the Dow Jones industrial average snapping a seven-day slide to close up 41.23 points, or 0.23 percent, at 18,355.
Oil prices rebounded more than 3 percent overnight, following a larger-than-expected drawdown on the U.S. gasoline stockpile.
Gasoline inventory fell by 3.3 million barrels versus a forecast for a 200,000-barrel drop, Reuters reported. The drawdown appeared to have offset data from the Energy Information Administration, which Reuters reported showed a 1.4 million barrels uptick in U.S. crude inventories last week.
During Asian hours, U.S. crude traded up 0.78 percent at $41.15 a barrel, while global benchmark Brent was higher by 0.51 percent to $43.32.
“Oil has once again established itself as the central thematic behind the world’s financial markets and the fact we saw such a powerful reversal at the trend low, despite dollar strength, has driven a slight uplift in sentiment,” said Chris Weston, chief market strategist at brokerage IG.
In company news, shares of Rio Tinto traded up 0.14 percent, retracing much of its earlier 1.8 percent gains, as investors appeared to have shrugged a poor first-half earnings reported on Wednesday after market close.
The miner said its first half underlying earnings dropped 47 percent to $1.56 billion. But the miner appeared to have surprised investors by announcing an interim dividend of 45 U.S. cents per share.
Hong Kong-listed shares of HSBC traded up 1.84 percent, whileStandard Chartered climbed 2.67 percent, after both banks reported earnings on Wednesday.
HSBC, one of Britain’s largest lenders, reported a near 29 percent on-year drop in first half pre-tax profits on Wednesday.
Standard Chartered posted a 19.78 percent on-year drop in its first half underlying operating income, which came in at $6.81 billion.
On the earnings front, Japanese automaker Toyota is expected to release its numbers Thursday.
Source: CNBC
