MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan shed 0.11 per cent in thin trading, with Japan and the U.S. on holiday
Asian shares were flat on Thursday with markets holding onto their gains for the week as confidence grows that interest rates globally will head lower in 2024, while oil prices declined on the prospects for smaller-than-expected output cuts by OPEC+.
Investors are also looking to Chinese policymakers for clues on possible support for the long-suffering property market, in line with wider growth targets they are hammering out.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan shed 0.11 per cent in thin trading, with Japan and the U.S. on holiday.
The U.S. market, which has priced out the possibility of another rate hike in December, shrugged off strong weekly jobs data on Wednesday night that may nevertheless lower the prospects for quicker-than-expected rate cuts by the Fed, said Redmond Wong, Greater China market strategist at Saxo Markets.
Japanese markets are closed for a national holiday on Thursday, after the Nikkei 225 gained 0.3 per cent the day before and approached a three-decade high.
Trading globally was expected to be quiet due to the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S.
China’s benchmark share index dropped 0.3 per cent on Thursday, with the real estate sub-index 0.8 per cent lower. A large wealth manager with heavy exposure to the property market revealed that it faces insolvency with relevant liabilities of up to $64 billion. Chinese government advisers will recommend to an annual policymakers’ meeting that economic growth targets for next year be set at 4.5 per cent to 5.5 per cent, Reuters reported on Wednesday.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index shed 0.7 per cent while Australia stocks dropped 0.4 per cent.
Markets have generally been buoyant this month, with stocks rallying on expectations of a more benign interest rate backdrop.
