Asian stocks rise before US CPI; Japan’s Nikkei extends rally
Investing.com-- Most Asian stocks rose on Thursday after a bruising start to 2024, with focus squarely on key U.S. inflation data for more cues on interest rate cuts, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 index extended its run of stellar gains after hitting multi-decade highs this week.
Regional stocks took a positive lead-in from Wall Street, which ended higher on Wednesday on strength in heavyweight technology stocks. This trend spilled over into Asia, with tech-heavy indexes logging the strongest gains.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 remained an outperformer among its Asian peers, rising 2% on Thursday to a fresh 34-year high above 35,000 points. The index was boosted by broad-based gains, although technology and automobile stocks did the heavy lifting.
Recent gains in Japanese stocks were driven chiefly by expectations that the Bank of Japan will maintain its ultra-dovish policy in the near-term, especially amid stimulus efforts in the wake of a devastating earthquake in central Japan.
A dovish BOJ also helped the Nikkei rank among the best-performing global stock indexes in 2023, with a 30% annual jump.
Most other Asian stocks advanced on Thursday, aided chiefly by strength in regional technology stocks. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was among the top performers, up 1.4% on a recovery in heavyweight tech shares.
South Korea’s KOSPI added 0.2%, with bigger gains being held back by signals from the Bank of Korea that interest rates will likely remain higher for longer. The central bank kept rates on hold on Thursday, and reiterated that it was done raising interest rates.
Australia’s ASX 200 added 0.4%. Data on Thursday showed a bigger-than-expected rise in Australia’s trade surplus through November, although the jump was driven chiefly by a steep
Read more on investing.com
