Asian Markets Eye Pivotal Sino-US Trade Talks
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2019-02-07 HKT 11:53
Asian markets mostly rose on Thursday as regional investors began to return from their Lunar New Year break, though Tokyo edged lower after a negative lead from Wall Street.
Most trading floors have reopened but business remains light, with Hong Kong and Shanghai still closed, while focus turns on the resumption next week of China-US trade talks in Beijing.
The two sides will try to hammer out a deal to resolve their long-running tariffs row, with markets broadly hopeful just three weeks before a deadline that will see the US more than double levies on hundreds of billions of dollars worth of Chinese goods.
Donald Trump has said he plans to meet his counterpart, Xi Jinping, before the end of the month to put the finishing touches to any deal, which would be in both countries' interest as the global economy begins to wobble.
In morning trade Sydney climbed more than one percent and Wellington put on 0.8 percent with investors cheered by the prospect of an extended period of low interest rates.
Seoul edged up 0.2 percent and Singapore put on 0.6 percent with Manila and Jakarta also up.
However, Tokyo fell 0.7 percent by the break despite a 17 percent surge in SoftBank, its biggest rise in a decade, fuelled by news of a US$5.5 billion share buyback using cash from last month's listing of its mobile phone unit.
On currency markets the New Zealand dollar tanked more than one percent on the back of weak jobs data while the Australian dollar extended Wednesday's sell-off that was fuelled by comments from the country's top central banker hinting interest rates would not rise any time soon.
Analysts pointed to the units' correlation to China's economy, which is stuttering at the moment, uncertainty on Wall Street and nervousness ahead of the trade talks. (AFP)
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