The region was led by Japan’s Nikkei 225, which added 1.8% to 38,062.92, powered by utilities and healthcare stocks
Asia-Pacific markets were mostly higher on Tuesday, while investors also assessed minutes of the Reserve Bank of Australia’s latest meeting.
The region was led by Japan’s Nikkei 225, which added 1.8% to 38,062.92, powered by utilities and healthcare stocks. The broad-based Topix was 1.11% higher and closed at 2,670.54.
China’s loan prime rates were held at 3.35% for the one-year LPR and 3.85% for the five-year LPR.
The one-year LPR acts as the benchmark for most corporate loans, and the five-year LPR serves as a reference rate for mortgages.
Minutes from the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) August meeting were released on Tuesday. At the meeting, the bank kept its benchmark interest rate at 4.35%, but noted that inflation remained “above target” and was “proving persistent.”
RBA said in its release that the board members had considered the case for raising the interest rate, but decided to leave it unchanged as the flow of data since the previous meeting “had not been sufficient to warrant a change in the stance of monetary policy.”
However, the central bank warned that it was “unlikely” that rates would be lowered in the short term, adding that “it was not possible to either rule in or rule out future changes in the cash rate target.”
South Korea’s Kospi was up 0.83%, closing at 2,696.63, and the small-cap Kosdaq saw a larger gain of 1.28% to 787.44.
The country’s consumer sentiment in August retreated from a two year high of 103.6, coming in at 100.8, with South Korean media outlet Yonhap reporting that this was “due to U.S. recession woes and the subsequent stock market rout.”
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 jumped 0.22% after the RBA release, ending the day at 7,997.7. The index briefly surpassed the 8,000 mark during the session, the first time since the August 2 meltdown in Asia.
However, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was 0.50% lower as of its final hour of trade, while mainland China’s CSI 300 declined 0.72% to close at 3,332.7, snapping a three day winning streak.
