Asia-Pacific stocks grow as Australia holds cash rate
Asia-Pacific markets climbed, tracking stocks on Wall Street as they rose for a second session.
Australia said it’s keeping its cash rate, while investors looked ahead to India’s budget announcement.
Japan Nikkei 225 climbed 0.29% to close at 27,078.49, while the Topix closed flat to 1,896.07. Some tech stocks grew, with SoftBank increasing 1.13% and Sony paring earlier gains to inch up 0.38%.
On Monday, Sony’s Interactive Entertainment announced that it has agreed to accept privately held video game developer Bungie for $3.7 billion.
In the meantime, according to Reuters, Japan’s manufacturing activity expanded at the fastest rate in nearly eight years.
Overview of Asia-Pacific stocks and others
Australia’s ASX 200 increased 0.48% to close at 7,007 after declining earlier.
On Tuesday, the Reserve Bank of Australia held its cash rate at 0.11%. Although it ended its bond-buying program as predicted, it went against market expectations for a rate hike.
The central bank’s Governor Philip Lowe talked about this case in a statement. He said that ending purchases under the bond purchase program does not mean a near-term increase in interest rates. As the Board said, it would not increase the cash rate until they see actual inflation within the 2 to 3% target range. He explained that while inflation has picked up, it is early to conclude sustainability within the target band.
He added that the Omicron outbreak affected the economy, but it has not failed the economic recovery. In his opinion, the Australian economy remains resilient while trying to pick up as case numbers trend lower.
After the monetary policy decision, the Australian dollar was $0.7041, down from $0.707 earlier.
According to Reuters, data on Tuesday also showed that Australia’s retail sales last year dropped 4.5% to 31.8 billion Australian dollars. It happened after a 7.4% jump in November.
India’s Nifty 50 advanced 1.45%, while the Sensex index was up 1.24%.
The S&P 500 increased 1.88% to 4,515.56, closing out the month down 5.4%.
