The main stock markets in the Asia-Pacific region are moving higher for the second consecutive session, with investor interest today focused on unemployment data in Australia and data on growth in Singapore.
In Australia, the economy added an extra 88,400 jobs in June, official data showed, far more than the 30,000 jobs economists in a Reuters poll had forecast.
Thus, the unemployment rate in the country stood at 3.5%, lower than the 3.8% set by economists, which is a 48-year low, according to Reuters.
Meanwhile, Singapore’s Ministry of Trade and Industry announced that according to preliminary estimates, the country’s GDP grew by 4.8% in the second quarter of the year compared to the corresponding period last year, a rate higher than the 4% recorded in the three first months of 2022 but lower than economists’ estimates. It is noted that economists polled by Reuters had expected growth of 5.2% in the second quarter.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore, meanwhile, tightened its monetary policy in an unscheduled move on Thursday. The country’s central bank said it would realign the average of the exchange rate policy zone, a practice known as the Singapore dollar’s nominal real exchange rate, to its prevailing level. It is noted that the central bank of the country manages the monetary policy by setting the exchange rate and not the interest rates.
Amid this mood, in mainland China the Shenzhen Component index reversed losses and rose 1.259%, with energy stocks gaining 3.68%, according to Eikon data. The Shanghai Composite rose 0.31 percent and the CSI 300, which tracks the mainland’s biggest stocks, gained 0.49 percent.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 also pared losses to gain 0.73%, while the Topix is ​​at +0.23%.
In South Korea, the Kospi is up 0.1%, while the Kosdaq is up 0.46%.
The S&P/ASX 200 index in Australia also recorded gains of 0.43%.
The Hang Seng index in Hong Kong, after losses recorded at the beginning of the session, has turned upwards and is moving 0.3% higher.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.28 percent.
Source: Capital
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