SINGAPORE — Shares in Asia-Pacific struggled for direction in Friday trade as investors await the Reserve Bank of Australia’s latest interest rate decision.
Mainland Chinese stocks were in positive territory, with the Shanghai Composite up about 0.4% and Shenzhen Component fractionally higher.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index gained 0.13%.
Over in South Korea, the Kospi fell 1.4%. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.85%.
The Nikkei 225 in Japan advanced 0.41%, while the Topix index climbed 0.74%.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific stocks outside Japan traded 0.65% lower.
“I think it’s still way too early to say that markets have bottomed,” Shane Oliver, head of investment strategy and chief economist at AMP Capital, told CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia” on Tuesday. “If you’re looking at the short-term, I’m pretty cautious. I think we could see more downside.”
“We’ve seen bond yields pushing up again overnight or in fact, for the last week or so they’ve been pushing higher again. Yes, there’s signs of a potential peak in U.S. inflation but other parts of the world, it’s more tenuous and I’d rather see the oil price decisively top out before I get more confident about saying inflation has peaked as well,” Oliver said.
The Reserve Bank of Australia is expected to announce its latest interest rate decision at 12:30 p.m. HK/SIN on Tuesday.
“We see the RBA lifting rates by 25bp to 0.60%. The RBA’s guidance for rates in May set up a string of ‘business as usual’ 25bp rises in our view, and there has been nothing in the data flow since May to wrest them from the outlook painted at that time,” Tapas Strickland, an economist at National Australia Bank, wrote in a note.
Overnight on Wall Street, the S&P 500 climbed 0.31% to 4,121.43. The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged 16.08 points higher, or less than 0.1%, to 32,915.78. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 0.4% to 12,061.37.
Currencies
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 102.61 after a recent bounce from below 102.
The Japanese yen traded at 132.57 per dollar, still weaker than levels below 128 seen against the greenback last week. The Australian dollar changed hands at $0.7171, off levels above $0.72 seen yesterday.
Oil prices were higher in the morning of Asia trading hours, with international benchmark Brent crude futures up 0.59% to $120.22 per barrel. U.S. crude futures climbed 0.63% to $119.25 per barrel.
Correction: This article was updated to correct the expected time for the Reserve Bank of Australia’s interest rate decision.
Source: CNBC