SINGAPORE. Asia-Pacific stocks edged higher on Thursday as Chinese markets continued to gain gains from the recovery, while the US Federal Reserve announced its first rate hike in more than three years.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index led the region’s major markets, up 6.25% in the afternoon, offsetting heavy losses earlier in the week. The core index posted its best day since October 2008 on Wednesday when it soared 9%.
The Hang Seng Tech index was up 8.41%, Tencent’s stock was up 7.19%, Alibaba’s was up 11.8% and JD.com was up 14.3%.
Mainland China shares rose, with the Shanghai composite up 2.72% and the Shenzhen component up 3.952%.
Chinese markets rebounded on Wednesday after Chinese state media reported support for Chinese stocks. U.S.-listed Chinese stocks also rose on Wednesday after a report that said regulators in both countries are working on a cooperation plan for U.S.-listed Chinese stocks.
The report, released on Wednesday, also said the authorities would work to bring stability to the struggling real estate sector. The Chinese Ministry of Finance additionally announced on Wednesday that there are no plans to expand property tax inspections this year.
Shares of Chinese property in Hong Kong rose on Thursday, with Country Garden shares up 21.48%, Sunac shares up more than 52% and China Evergrande Group shares up 22.48%. The Hang Seng Properties Index rose 7.85%.
Other markets in the Asia-Pacific region also rebounded on Thursday. Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 3.5%, while the Topix rose 2.56%.
The South Korean Kospi added 1.75%. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 1.05%.
The broadest Asia-Pacific MSCI stock index outside of Japan rose 3.66%.
Oil prices rose in the afternoon of trading in Asia: futures for Brent crude rose 1.88% to $99.86 per barrel. US oil futures rose 1.7% to $96.66 a barrel.
Fed rate hike
The US Federal Reserve approved a 0.25 percentage point rate hike on Wednesday, the first hike since December 2018.
US central bank officials also pointed to an aggressive forward stance, with rate hikes in six remaining meetings this year.
“Given our underlying stagflation, which has been exacerbated by the war between Russia and Ukraine, it seems that the Fed’s focus will be more on fighting inflation, despite the uncertainty created by the situation in Ukraine based on yesterday’s meeting,” Salman Ahmed, Global Head of Macroeconomic and Financial Management . strategic asset allocation at Fidelity International, it said in a note on Thursday.
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Overnight on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 518.76 points, or 1.55%, to 34,063.10, while the S&P 500 rose 2.24% to 4,357.86. The Nasdaq Composite Technology Index rose 3.77% to 13,436.55.
Currencies
The US Dollar Index, which tracks the dollar against a basket of its peers, was at 98.404 after recently falling from around 99.
The Japanese yen traded at 118.76 per dollar, below the sub-118 levels seen against the dollar earlier this week. The Australian dollar changed hands at $0.7316, maintaining gains after yesterday’s bounce below $0.72.
— Jeff Cox and Evelyn Cheng of CNBC contributed to this report.