SINGAPORE — Shares in Asia-Pacific were mixed in Thursday trade as investors await the release of U.S. consumer inflation data.
Mainland Chinese stocks were lower by the afternoon, with the Shanghai composite down 0.1% while the Shenzhen component dipped 0.787%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 0.44%. Hong Kong-listed shares of China Evergrande Group soared about 3%. The embattled developer aims to deliver 600,000 apartments in 2022, but was not looking to a fire sale of its assets to clear its debts, Reuters reported Wednesday.
In India, the Nifty 50 rose 0.32% while the BSE Sensex gained 0.28%.
The Reserve Bank of India’s governor announced Thursday that the monetary policy committee voted to keep the repo rate — or the rate at which the central bank lends to commercial lenders — unchanged at 4%.
The RBI’s reverse repo rate, or the rate at which commercial banks lend to the central bank, also remained steady at 3.35%.
Following that announcement, the Indian rupee was at 75.04 per dollar, weaker than an earlier high of 74.778 seen against the greenback.
Elsewhere, the Nikkei 225 in Japan gained 0.36% while the Topix index rose 0.41%. South Korea’s Kospi advanced 0.32%.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 climbed 0.28%.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific stocks outside Japan gained 0.21%.
Looking ahead, the U.S. consumer price index report is set to be released Thursday stateside.
Overnight stateside, the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 305.28 points to 35,768.06 while the S&P 500 gained 1.45% to 4,587.18. The Nasdaq Composite outperformed, surging 2.08% to 14,490.37.
Currencies and oil
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 95.539.
The Japanese yen traded at 115.60 per dollar, still weaker than levels below 115 seen against the greenback earlier this week. The Australian dollar was at $0.7173, largely holding on to gains after its climb from below $0.712 earlier in the week.
Oil prices were mildly higher in the afternoon of Asia trading hours, with international benchmark Brent crude futures rising just 0.02% to $91.57 per barrel. U.S. crude futures gained 0.07% to $89.72 per barrel.
