Yahoo Finance Hong Kong, India, and Japan Lead the Rally in Asian Markets
Global Markets Ride on Crude Rally, Macro Data
Asian markets post strong gains
The major Asian indexes (AAXJ) staged a rebound on Wednesday, May 25, 2016. This was in line with the strong performance from US markets after the new home sales beat forecasts at 619,000, the highest level in nearly eight years. The gain in the Asian indexes were led by Japan, Hong Kong, and India.
The Japanese (DXJ) Nikkei 225 rose by 1.6%. The US dollar–Japanese yen currency pair is inversely related to the Japanese yen. It was trading above 110 in early trading. The iShares MSCI India ETF (INDA) also posted strong gains and rose by 2.4%. The Hong Kong Hang Seng Index was leading the rise in Asian indexes and rose by 2.7%.
The Chinese (MCHI) DJ Shanghai Index was the only major Asian index that traded on a contrasting note—it fell by 0.15%. Looking at the performance of the Oceania indexes, we see that the Australian (EWA) index S&P/ASX 200 and the Dow Jones New Zealand (VPL) index traded higher by 1.4% and 0.48%, respectively.
Asian domestic data release
Looking at the domestic data release from the Asian countries, the Singapore GDP growth rate rose by 0.2% on a quarter-over-quarter basis in the first quarter. The year-over-year GDP growth rose by 1.8%.
The balance of trade release from Asian countries was slightly dismal as the balance of trade in the Philippines posted a deficit of $1.7 billion, which was worse than the forecasts. Thailand’s balance of trade data also disappointed as the report indicated a surplus of $720 million against the forecast of a rise of over $1 billion.
Impact on the ADRs
Looking at the performance of Asian ADRs (American depositary receipts) in the financial sector, we see that the Japanese group Mizuho Financial (MFG) fell by 0.48% on May 25, 2016, at 11:30 AM ET. Indian banking ADRs HDFC Bank Limited (HDB) and ICICI Bank Limited (IBN) rose by a significant 1.8% and 5.4%, respectively.
Looking at the Korean companies, we saw KB Financial Group (KB) rise by 1.4% while Shinhan Financial (SHG) rose by 1.9%.
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