Yahoo Finance Asian Stocks Extend Gains; ASX Slips After RBA Policy Meeting
Investing.com - Asian markets extended their gains in afternoon trade on Tuesday, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 underperformed its regional peers following the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) August policy meeting.
China’s Shanghai Composite and the SZSE Component rose 1.2% and 1.4% respectively by 1:55AM ET (05:55 GMT), while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index edged up 0.5%.
Low level trade talks between U.S. and China are due to start later in the day, although Trump said he does not expect much to happen during the meeting. Traders will also be closely watching this week’s Jackson Hole symposium for clues on U.S. monetary policy.
China Vanke Co Ltd (HK:2202), China’s third largest property developer by sales, reported a 25% increase in its first-half profit, according to a company statement.
The company’s core profit hiked to $1.32 billion in the first half of this year, up by 27.7%, while its net profit increased by 24.9% to $1.33 billion and its revenue surged 51.8% to $15.5 billion.
Other major developers including Evergrande and Country Garden also said they expect their net profit to grow more than 50% and 125% respectively in the first six months.
Down under, the S&P/ASX 200 was down 0.9% on Tuesday. The RBA took centre stage on Tuesday as it said it saw “no strong case” for a near-term shift in cash rate. It also stressed the need for interest rates to stay at record lows. Earlier this month, the central bank left the cash rate unchanged at 1.5%, noting that business conditions in the economy remained positive.
BHP Billiton Ltd (AX:BHP) received some focus after it paid out a record annual dividend of $1.18 per share. Full year earnings jumped 33% to $8.9 billion, according to a statement on Tuesday. That compared with a $9.2 billion average estimates.
Meanwhile, markets were under pressure earlier in the day after U.S. president Donald Trump accused China and the EU for manipulating their currencies.
“I think China’s manipulating their currency, absolutely. And I think the euro is being manipulated also,” Trump said in an interview with Reuters published Monday.
Trump then added that he believed the Federal Reserve should do “what’s good for the country,” and that he disagreed with the Federal Reserve's decision to raise interest rates.
"I should be given some help by the Fed,” he said.
The Fed is due to meet again in meets to consider rates. Markets widely expect it to raise them in September and also later this year. So far, the central bank has raised rates five times since Trump took office.
Elsewhere, the Nikkei 225 edged up 0.2%, while South Korea’s KOSPI gained 1.0%.
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