Most Asian markets yesterday fell again on increasing expectations the US Federal Reserve plans to hike interest rates in the summer, while traders were left disappointed by weak economic data from China.
The likelihood of a Fed hike, coupled with the European Central Bank’s (ECB) new bond-buying stimulus program and fears over Greece, also sent the US dollar surging against the yen and closer towards parity with the euro.
In Taipei, the TAIEX ended down 13.35 points, or 0.14 percent, at 9,523.18, following a sell-off on Wall Street overnight, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 1.85 percent, the S&P 500 fell 1.7 percent and the tech-rich NASDAQ Composite Index lost 1.67 percent.
However, Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) Chairman William Tseng (曾銘宗) said that while foreign institutional investors have been net sellers of Taiwan shares in recent days, there were no signs of large fund outflows.
As of Tuesday, foreign institutional investors had made net fund inflows of US$680 million in the first 10 days of March, according to the commission.
“The global financial markets have been overshadowed by concerns over the Fed’s move to raise interest rates sooner than later, while in particular, Washington reported a strong job report for February,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐投顧) analyst Alex Huang (黃國偉) said. “Fortunately, the local bourse witnessed some technical support at around 9,500 points as some investors appeared willing to pick up bargains among large-cap stocks to fend off the impact of Wall Street’s heavy losses to some extent.”
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index slipped 0.75 percent, or 179.01 points, to 23,717.97 but the Shanghai Composite Index enjoyed a late rally to end up 0.15 percent, or 4.83 points, at 3,290.90, with investors hoping for further easing measures.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index lost 0.53 percent, or 31.0 points, to 5,793.2 and Seoul’s KOSPI was down 0.2 percent, or 3.94 points, at 1,980.83.
However, Tokyo’s TOPIX ended 0.31 percent, or 58.41 points, higher at 18.723,52.
In Japanese trading yesterday, the US dollar was at ￥121.34, compared with ￥121.07 late in New York. At one point on Tuesday it broke above ￥122 for the first time since late 2007.
The US dollar also surged against the euro after the ECB kicked off its own bond-buying scheme, known as quantitative easing (QE), in a drive to fight off deflation.
The euro bought US$1.0653 — its lowest since June 2003 — compared with US$1.0698 in US trade. The single currency was also at ￥129.26 against ￥129.53.
Additional reporting by CNA
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