AUS
NZ
UK
CA
USA
IND
Equity markets in the Asia Pacific region were trading near the flatline as local Asian currencies strengthened vis à vis a weakened US dollar.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six of its peers, fell to 92.89 from levels above 93.1 yesterday. The dollar index is directly proportional to the strength of US dollar and inversely proportional to local currencies: the higher the dollar index, the stronger the US Dollar and weaker the local currency.
The Australian and New Zealand currencies were the biggest beneficiaries of the weakened US dollar. The Australian currency traded at AU$0.7366 against US$1, appreciating from levels above AU$0.732 yesterday. The currency of neighbouring New Zealand was at NZ$0.7033 against the greenback, from levels below NZ$0.70 seen earlier in the week.
Overnight in Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 rose after inflation jumped less than investors feared when stripping out volatile food and energy prices.
The Dow 30 surged 220.30 points, or 0.6%, to close at 35,484.97 – a new record. The S&P 500 traded up 0.2% to 4,447.70, also notching up an all-time high. The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite slipped more than 0.1% to 14,765.14.
This is how APAC markets were doing at 12:30pm HKT:
- Australia: The Australian markets seem to be snapping their record-breaking rally, seen throughout the week. The country’s benchmark, which was scaling new life high every day, was oscillating near flatline. At the time of filing this copy, the country’s benchmark ASX200 was down 0.05%. Melbourne extended its lockdown by another week as it struggles to contain the highly infectious Delta variant. At national level, Australia reported 376 fresh COVID-19 cases and two deaths.
- Japan: The far-eastern land of the rising sun also seems to be in the mood to break its rally. The Japanese markets have otherwise been in a rallying mode for quite some time. Its benchmark Nikkei 225 was trading at loss of 0.07%.
- China: Chinese markets were in the red. The Shanghai Composite was down 0.12% at the time of writing this copy, while the Shenzhen Component was down 0.56%. China, on Wednesday, clocked 81 new COVID-19 cases and country has again enforced travel restrictions.
- Hong Kong: In this Chinese Special Administrative Region (SAR), the benchmark Hang Seng index was trading down 0.36%. On its Hong Kong debut, Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer Li Auto saw its shares dip as much as 1.8% below their offer price. The company later pared some of these losses to trade just below the flatline.
