Hong Kong led Asian markets higher Wednes-day as traders brushed off a retreat on Wall Street, with attention turning to the release later in the day of minutes from the Federal Reserve's most recent policy meeting.Trading floors have calmed down since the wild volatility that greeted the start of February, which was caused by concerns about the impact of higher US interest rates and Treasury bond yields.
While New York's three main indexes ended in negative territory on Tuesday, Asian dealers were in upbeat mood, helping the dollar recover from recent losses against the yen, euro and pound. Hong Kong surged 1.8 percent, boosted by energy firms after a recent run-up in oil prices, and further chipping away at the more than nine percent losses during a torrid week earlier in February. It is now just over three percent down from the levels touched before that sell-off. Tokyo's Nikkei ended 0.2 percent higher.
Sydney gained 0.1 percent, Singapore put on 1.1 percent and Seoul was up 0.6 percent. Wellington climbed 1.3 percent and Taipei returned from a week-long Lunar New Year break to jump 2.8 percent. Shanghai remained closed for the holidays. The Fed minutes will be closely pored over for clues about the views of policy board members as US inflation edges up, wages improve and Donald Trump's tax cuts come into play.
Stephen Innes, head of Asia-Pacific trading at OANDA, said: "US equity markets fell overnight on the back of higher US Treasury yields which are providing investors with more income than dividends on the S&P 500 Index." However, "while the prospect of higher interest rates will keep investors on edge, it's not like we're returning to double-digit levels." He added that even a rise in key US 10-year yields to 3.25 percent is "unlikely to kill the equity market rally as the benefits from fiscal stimulus should continue to feed through the markets.
-AFP, Hong Kong
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