Asian stock markets ended mostly higher on Thursday, following mixed cues overnight from Wall Street. Markets ended positive after the minutes from the US Federal Reserve’s latest monetary policy meeting indicated the central bank plans to maintain its ultra-loose monetary policy despite massive stimulus packages.
However, traders continue to be cautious amid the surge in coronavirus cases in the region and the extension of lockdown restrictions in several markets.
Overnight, US stocks saw consolidation as indices closed flat with Dow Jones gaining marginally & Nasdaq closing flat.
Asian markets opened muted with the Japanese Nikkei trading lower by 100 points in early trade while the rest of the region traded flat. Nikkei closed marginally lower (0.07%).
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rallied to trade over 1% higher while SGX Nifty also advanced 1%. Korean Kospi ended 0.19% higher.
Chinese stocks failed to gain traction yesterday despite better than expected data on economic growth as markets continue to watch the second wave of Covid infections carefully. However, they saw some consolidation on Thursday as markets await Corporate results & guidance before seeing any major moves on stock prices.
Shanghai Composite and Shenzhen closed 0.08% higher. Markets in Taiwan, Malaysia and Jakarta also rose.
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