On Wednesday, Asia-Pacific markets were trading mixed, as there was a drop in real estate stocks in Hong Kong.
There was a rise in inflation in Australia and investors were focusing on the policy rate decision from the US Federal Reserve.
Hong Kong markets
There was a 15.05% drop in stocks of Country Garden, as the property company said that it would sell 870 million new shares in order to raise funds of 2.8 billion Hong Kong dollars.
This put the price of the company’s shares at around 3.25 Hong Kong dollars, which was about 12.63% lower than Tuesday’s closing price of Country Garden.
There was a 6.29% decline in the Hang Seng Mainland Properties index.
A 1.13% loss was seen in the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong, which brought it to 20, 670.04, and a 1.3% drop in the Hang Seng Tech index.
A 3.26% drop was also seen in heavyweight Alibaba, after it popped on Tuesday when it announced its plans of obtaining a dual primary listing in Hong Kong.
Other Asian markets
In other Asian markets, there was a 0.22% gain in the Nikkei 225 index in Japan, which rose to 27,715.75, while a 0.13% gain in the Topix index took it to 1,945.75.
There was a mild decline in mainland Chinese markets. A 0.05% decline was seen in the Shanghai Composite, which brought it to 3,275.76.
A 0.07% loss in the Shenzhen Composite saw it come down to 12,399.69. There was a 0.23% gain in the Australian S&P/ASX 200 index, which closed at 6,823.2.
The Kospi index in South Korea rose by 0.11% to reach 2,415.53, while a 0.73% gain in the Kosdaq lifted it to 795.7.
There was a 0.45% decline in the MSCI’s index of shares in Asia-Pacific, excluding Japan.
Australia’s CPI
There was a 6.1% increase in prices in Australia in the second quarter, as opposed to the same period a year earlier. The rise in the first quarter had been about 5.1%.
Analysts had expected the reading to be around 6.2%. Before the announcement, they also said that the CPI reading could have an impact on the future rate hike expectations of the market.
They also added that any impact on the Australian Dollar from the CPI data would be short-lived because the darkening outlook of the global economy was likely to weigh more on the currency.
On Tuesday, the International Monetary Fund also reduced its forecast of the global GDP for 2022 and the next year as well.
Its April forecast had predicted growth in global GDP to be about 3.6%, but it has now been reduced to 3.2%.
After the inflation report, the Australian dollar recorded some weakness and was down to $0.6927. Overnight trading saw a decline in the US stock market.
There was a 0.71% drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average that saw it lose 228.50 points to end the day at 31,761.54.
The Nasdaq Composite and the S&P 500 also saw declines of 1.87% and 1.15%, respectively.
