Asian stock markets mostly extended gains to a third straight day early Wednesday, following little movement overnight in the U.S. and Europe.
The Nikkei
NIK, +0.68%
rose 0.3%, on pace to extend its streak of gains to more than a week. Shipping names continued to outpace other sectors, with Mitsui OSK Lines
9104, +3.42%
and Nippon Yusen
9101, +1.73%
each up more than 2%. In other sectors, electronics maker TDK
6762, +2.14%
was up 1.7%, though retailer Aeon
8267, -2.69%
was down 2.8%.
After posting the only declines in the region Tuesday — albeit slight ones — Chinese equities lagged again, with the Shanghai Composite
SHCOMP, -0.18%
off 0.4% and the Shenzhen Composite
399106, -0.50%
down 0.6%. Infrastructure names failed to do much despite the Ministry of Finance calling for “further aggressive measures” to boost domestic demand and fuel structural shift in the economy.
Hong Kong stocks paused after the strength seen to start this week. The Hang Seng
HSI, +0.16%
was last about flat. Financials were under pressure after releasing quarterly results, with Bank of China
3988, -1.10%
down 1.3% and BOC Hong Kong
2388, -1.66%
falling 2.1%.
South Korea’s Kospi
SEU, +0.15%
also started slowly, advancing about 0.1%, as tech giant Samsung
005930, +0.11%
edged up 0.2%. Australia’s benchmark index
XJO, +0.38%
rose about 0.2%, while New Zealand’s
NZ50GR, +1.32%
jumped more than 1%. Taiwan
Y9999, +0.81%
, Singapore
STI, +0.14%
posted modest gains while Malaysian stocks
FBMKLCI, -0.55%
pulled back.
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Source : MTV
