Shares in Asia-Pacific were mixed on Wednesday trade, following an overnight bounce stateside that saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average rising more than 500 points.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 rose 0.58% to close at 27,548 while the Topix index advanced 0.82% to finish the trading day at 1,904.41.
Japan’s exports rose 48.6% in June as compared with a year earlier, according to data released Wednesday by the country’s Ministry of Finance. That was higher than a 46.2% increase expected by economists.
Mainland Chinese stocks closed higher as the Shanghai composite gained 0.73% to 3,562.66 while the Shenzhen component rose 1.341% to 15,212.60. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 0.26%, as of its final hour of trading.
Elsewhere, the S&P/ASX 200 in Australia climbed 0.78% to close at 7,308.70.
Australia’s retail sales fell 1.8% in June as compared with the previous month on a seasonally adjusted basis, preliminary retail trade data from the country’s Bureau of Statistics showed Wednesday.
The Australian dollar changed hands at $0.7295, still off levels above $0.742 seen last week.
South Korea’s Kospi slipped 0.52% on the day to 3,215.91. The Taiex in Taiwan also closed 0.4% lower at 17,458.79. While MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slipped 0.12%.
Those gains were a comeback from Monday’s losses, which saw the Dow plunging more than 700 points amid fears that a Covid resurgence could slow the economic recovery.
Asian Markets Currencies and oil
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 93.10 after an earlier low of 92.953.
The Japanese yen traded at 109.94 per dollar, weaker than levels below 109.5 seen against the greenback earlier in the week.
Oil prices were lower in the afternoon of Asia trading hours, with international benchmark Brent crude futures down 0.35% to $69.11 per barrel. U.S. crude futures fell 0.33% to $66.98 per barrel.
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