Updated Oct. 29, 2013 4:58 a.m. ETAsian stock markets made small moves Tuesday ahead of Wednesday’s Federal Reserve policy meeting, as investors digested a number of corporate earnings reports.
U.S. pending home sales data for September missed expectations, falling 5.6% to the lowest level since December. Coming just before the U.S. Federal Reserve holds its latest policy meeting, the poor data raised expectations that the central bank will keep its bond-buying program unchanged.
Although the S&P 500 hit a new high overnight, Wall Street ended Monday little changed, providing a weak lead for Asia. Regional stocks ended the day with small moves, with many markets ending the day close to the break-even mark.
Australia was under pressure, with the S&P/ASX 200 falling 0.5% to 5415.50 after a speech by Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Glenn Stevens cast doubt on the health of the Australian economy.
Mr. Stevens also said that the local currency’s current level wasn’t consistent with the underlying economic fundamentals. The Australian dollar fell to US$0.9509 from US$0.9577.
The Nikkei ended down 0.5% at 14325.98, as the index was weighed by strength in the yen—at ¥97.52 to the dollar late in Asia compared with ¥97.67 late Monday in New York.
Tuesday’s swings continued a period of volatility for the Nikkei, which has bounced violently up and down in reaction to relatively small movements in the yen. On Monday, the Nikkei jumped 2.2%, rebounding from a sharp fall on Friday.
Chinese stocks were mixed, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index ending up 0.2% at 22846.54, while the Shanghai Composite slid 0.2% to 2128.86.
South Korea’s Kospi closed 0.2% higher at 2051.76.
The earnings season rolled on, with markets across the region digesting a wide range of earnings reports.
In Tokyo, KDDI Corporation gained 2.4% after the telecommunications company reported a record-high and consensus-beating operating profit for the first half of the fiscal year, due to a stronger-than-expected increase in subscription and a rise in usage revenue.
Japanese suppliers to Apple fell after the U.S. technology giant reported that it sold fewer than expected iPhones in the quarter ended September. Taiyo Yuden fell 2.1% and Murata Manufacturing lost 1.7%.
In Sydney, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group rose 1.2% after reporting a forecast-beating fiscal 2013 cash profit, as well as a dividend that was higher than expected.
In South Korea, SK Hynix dropped 3.5% as profit-taking emerged after the world’s second-largest maker of memory chips reported a sharp increase in its third-quarter net profit. The stock had a strong run-up in recent weeks and is still up 5.6% so far this month.
Write to Daniel Inman at daniel.inman@wsj.com
View post: Asian Markets Digest Earnings
沒有留言:
張貼留言