Shares advanced on Thursday in Asia after benchmarks closed at three-month highs on Wall Street as investors cheered a report showing inflation cooled more than expected in July, reports AP.
Hong Kong, Shanghai and Seoul saw gains of more than 1 per cent. Tokyo was closed for a holiday. US futures edged higher, while oil prices slipped.
The government said Wednesday that consumer inflation jumped 8.5 per cent in July from a year earlier. But that was down from June’s four-decade high of 9.1 per cent.
The S&P 500 surged 2.1 per cent on expectations that slower inflation will mean the Federal Reserve may moderate its interest rates hikes. Technology stocks, cryptocurrencies and other investments that have been among the year’s biggest losers due to the Fed’s aggressive rate hikes led the way.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index added 1.9 per cent to 19,982.20 while the Shanghai Composite index gained 1.2 per cent, to 3,268.02. The Kospi in Seoul rose 1.3 per cent to 2,513.22 and Taiwan’s Taiex was up 1.5 per cent.
In Thailand, the SET picked up 0.4 per cent after the country’s central bank raised its benchmark interest rate by 0.25 percentage points to 0.75 per cent a day earlier.
The Southeast Asian country’s economy has been hard hit by the pandemic, which ravaged its all-important tourism sector.
Bd-pratidin English/Golam Rosul
