Asian shares mostly rise as markets digest Fed moves | National News
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A currency trader passes by screens showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), center, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, right, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, June 18, 2021. Asian shares mostly rose Friday, as investors digested the latest message from the U.S. Federal Reserve on raising short-term interest rates by late 2023.
A currency trader watches monitors at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, June 18, 2021. Asian shares mostly rose Friday, as investors digested the latest message from the U.S. Federal Reserve on raising short-term interest rates by late 2023.
A currency trader passes by screens showing foreign exchange rates at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, June 18, 2021. Asian shares mostly rose Friday, as investors digested the latest message from the U.S. Federal Reserve on raising short-term interest rates by late 2023.
TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares mostly rose Friday, as investors digested the latest message from the U.S. Federal Reserve on raising short-term interest rates by late 2023.
Japan’s benchmark lost earlier gains and inched down less than 0.1% in afternoon trading to 29,009.75. South Korea’s Kospi edged 0.2% higher to 3,272.42. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.1% to 7,368.90. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng jumped 0.7% to 28,769.94, while the Shanghai Composite gained 0.1% to 3,530.32.
The Bank of Japan kept its ultra-lax monetary policy intact, as investors had expected. Wrapping up a two-day meeting, the central bank also extended by six months, until March 2022, a lending program to help companies weather the pandemic.
“Japan’s economy has picked up as a trend, although it has remained in a severe situation due to the impact of COVID-19 at home and abroad,” the Bank of Japan said in a statement.
The Fed’s comments came Wednesday, and global markets had already initially reacted Thursday. But comments about the possibility of slowing the central bank’s bond-buying program are rippling through markets. Such support has been a key reason for the stock market’s resurgence to records.
The S&P 500 slipped less than 0.1% to 4,221.86 after meandering from a 0.2% gain to a 0.7% loss. Most of the stocks in the index and across Wall Street were lower, but gains for Apple, Microsoft and a few other tech heavyweights helped offset the losses.
