Japanese stocks rose again on Friday as a weaker yen provided further support to exporters, while the euro struggled to recover after the European Central Bank (ECB) extended its stimulus package.
Hong Kong-listed casino operators plunged after a report said officials had halved the amount of cash gamblers can withdraw from ATMs in the gaming city of Macau, as China tries to choke off a flight of capital from the country.
Most Asian investors were moving cautiously after a strong run-up this week, while they look ahead to next week’s key US Federal Reserve policy meeting, hoping for clues about its plans for interest rates next year.
The ECB on Thursday said it would reduce the amount of bonds it buys each month as part of its monetary easing scheme, but added that it would continue the program to the end of next year, well past its planned March expiry.
ECB President Mario Draghi also signaled that the eurozone’s fragile economy could count on its continued support.
The euro retreated on the prospect of more cash being pumped into financial markets for some time to come. It was sitting around US$1.06 in afternoon Asian trade, having dallied with US$1.08 earlier in the week.
While the news helped all three main indices on Wall Street tap record closes, Asian stock markets took a breather.
Tokyo ended 1.2 percent higher as the US dollar pushed up against the yen.
Sydney added 0.3 percent and Shanghai gained 0.5 percent after data showed prices at China’s factory gates rose more than expected last month, indicating a pick-up in demand in the world’s No. 2 economy.
“China has entered a new inflationary cycle,” Raymond Yeung (楊宇霆), Hong Kong-based chief Greater China economist at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group, told Bloomberg News. “The next move of the PBOC [People’s Bank of China] should be an interest rate hike, not a cut.”
In Taipei, shares moved higher on Friday on momentum carried over from the previous session, but gains were limited ahead of stiff technical resistance at about 9,400 points, dealers said.
Buying in financial and old-economy stocks helped the broader market move higher, while the bellwether electronics sector took a pause after a significant rebound on Thursday, the dealers said.
Reduced turnover revealed cautious sentiment before the Fed’s policy meeting next week for more clues on how the US central bank would adjust its monetary policy, they added.
The TAIEX closed up 0.18 percent at 9,392.68 on Friday. That also represented an increase of 2.2 percent from 9,189.49 on Friday last week.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), the most heavily weighted stock in the local market, rose 0.27 percent to NT$186, and chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) edged up 0.22 percent to NT$230.50.
Bucking the upturn on the broader market, Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (日月光) dropped 1.01 percent to NT$34.15 after the IC packaging and testing services provider announced that it would issue new shares and sell unsecured straight bonds to raise NT$18 billion to cut its debts.
“The non-high-tech sector served as an anchor to stabilize the broader market, while the electronics sector was slow today,” KGI Securities (凱基證券) analyst Phil Chu said.
“Since foreign institutional investors still held a great number of long-position futures contracts, I do not think that they wanted to see a slump in the spot market,” he said.
In other markets, Seoul was off 0.3 percent, Singapore shed 0.2 percent, Wellington eased 0.3 percent and Jakarta lost 0.3 percent.
Hong Kong sank 0.4 percent, with gaming firms hammered by a report in the South China Morning Post on China’s move to restrict withdrawals.
Starting yesterday, the amount of cash China UnionPay bank card holders can withdraw from machines in Macau would be halved, the report said.
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