Shares on Friday fell in most Asian markets after China reported a bigger-than-expected rise in prices that could prompt authorities to act to cool inflation.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index rebounded after falling the day before, but shares declined in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sydney and Seoul.
On Thursday, stocks closed moderately higher on Wall Street, lifted by gains in large technology companies that benefit from lower bond yields, but an increase in jobless claims dented some of the buying enthusiasm.
Photo: AP
China reported that consumer prices rose last month due largely to a jump in fuel prices, while producer prices climbed at the fastest pace in more than four years.
China’s consumer price index rose 0.4 percent last month compared with minus-0.2 percent in February, as fuel prices jumped nearly 12 percent from a year earlier. Prices paid by manufacturers rose 4.4 percent from a year earlier.
Inflation reflects rising demand as China’s economy leads the globel recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Worries that stronger growth might spur inflation that regulators in many major economies would then move to cool, partly by raising interest rates, have been hanging over markets for the past several months.
China’s central bank already has ordered lenders to slow the pace of credit growth to counter rising risks.
Added to that, a fresh round of US sanctions, this time against seven Chinese supercomputer makers, has revived concern over trade friction between the two largest economies, Oanda Corp senior market analyst for Asia-Pacific Jeffrey Halley said.
“Asian markets are once again adopting a more cautious posture today. Geopolitics is never far from the surface, even if it is often lost in the global recovery noise,” Halley said in a report.
Taiwan’s TAIEX ended down 72.34 points, or 0.43 percent, at 16,854.1, but rose 1.71 percent from a week earlier.
Turnover totaled NT$436.298 billion (US$15.34 billion).
The Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.92 percent to 3,450.68, and dropped 0.97 percent for the week, while in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng fell 1.07 percent to 28,698.8, posting a weekly decline of 0.83 percent.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gave up 0.05 percent to 6,995.2, but gained 2.44 percent for the week.
South Korea’s KOSPI declined 0.36 percent to 3,131.88, increasing 0.61 percent from a week earlier.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 rose 0.2 percent to 29,768.06, dropping 0.29 percent for the week, while the TOPIX rose 0.39 percent to 1,959.47, declining 0.62 percent from a week earlier.
Shares in Sony Corp rose 2.7 percent after the company signed an exclusive movie distribution deal with Netflix Inc.
Additional reporting by staff writer, with CNA
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