Asian markets ended mixed on Thursday as investors looked to the US jobs report this week to get signs about how long the Federal Reserve will remain on hold.
Overnight, US indices closed with gains as Dow Jones hit a fresh new all-time high as US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Wednesday clarified on rising in rates as being expected much later. Nasdaq however saw profit booking as money saw exit after superb results by social media/digital stocks. Bond yields fell to 1.59% as markets price in mild inflation.
Asian markets opened strong led by the Japanese Nikkei which traded higher by 2% after being closed for holidays earlier this week. Nikkei closed 518.74 points higher or 1.8% on Thursday.
Korean Kospi closed with gains of 1%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng and SGX Nifty also advanced Markets in India were also bullish while in Taiwan it closed 0.9% higher.
Chinese mainland markets opening for the first time in May after holidays struggled. Shanghai Composite fell 0.16% while Shenzen Component sank 1.58% on Thursday. Australian ASX 200 ended lower 0.48% while in its neighbouring New Zealand also saw decline of 0.75% on Thursday. Markets in Malaysia and Jakarta also were marginally lower.
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