Asian shares mostly rise on interest rate, inflation hopes
TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares were mostly higher Wednesday after new data showed inflation in the U.S., while still at a 40-year high, was not as bad as some analysts had expected.
Benchmarks rose in Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Australia. U.S. futures were also higher, while oil prices were little changed.
Shares fell in Shanghai after the Chinese government reported that exports rose nearly 16% in March from a year earlier while imports were flat.
The easing of a COVID-19 lockdown in Shanghai was another encouraging factor. Shanghai released 6,000 more people from the central facilities where they were under medical observation to guard against the coronavirus, the government said Wednesday, though the lockdown of most of China’s largest city was being maintained in its third week.
“The good news is that China will begin to come out of lockdowns at some point, and there will be an injection of stimulus of some form by the authorities to reboot communities and the economy. The light at the end of the tunnel is reasonably bright for China," Clifford Bennett, chief economist at ACY Securities, said in a commentary.
But Bennett added: “Do not expect a return to rampant growth, however.”
Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 jumped 1.9% to finish at 26,843.49. Australia's S&P/AS 200 added 0.3% to 7,479.00. South Korea's Kospi surged 1.9% to 2,716.60. Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.3% to 21,382.96, while the Shanghai Composite shed 0.6% to 3,194.92.
In Tokyo trading, shares of Shionogi dropped 11% after the Japanese pharmaceutical company reported that animal tests for its experimental oral drug to treat COVID-19 showed it may be a risk for fetal development. Japanese media reported the drug won't be prescribed to pregnant people or those who may be pregnant.
Stocks ended...
