Equity indices in the Asia-Pacific region closed Tuesday’s session on a relatively mixed note, largely brushing off concerns about Iran and stubbornly high energy prices.
Japan’s Nikkei: -0.3%,
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng: +2.5%,
China’s Shanghai Composite: +0.4%,
India’s Sensex: +0.5%,
South Korea’s Kospi: +0.2%,
Australia’s ASX All Ordinaries: flat.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng (+2.5%) was the standout winner, bolstered by AI enthusiasm and optimism regarding the property market.
The AI trade has been pushed along by the start of Computex 2026 in Taiwan, which will run June 2-5 and will key on AI’s evolving capabilities.
China
PBOC’s open market operations included a fund injection of just CNY200 mln, which was the smallest OMO since 2015.
Japan
May Monetary Base -12.2% yr/yr (expected -9.5%; last -11.3%)
Hong Kong
April Retail Sales 8.6% yr/yr (last 12.8%)
South Korea
Chatter about a possible rate hike by the Bank of Korea was ignited by a hotter-than-expected CPI report for May that featured the highest annualized rate (3.1%) since early 2024.
The Bank of Korea is expecting the inflation rate to maintain a 3-handle for some time.
May CPI 0.5% m/m (expected 0.3%; last 0.5%) and 3.1% yr/yr (expected 3.0%; last 2.6%)
Australia
Q1 Current Account Balance -AUD27.1 bln (expected -AUD23.1 bln; last -AUD23.0 bln);
April Building Approvals -3.4% m/m (expected -1.5%; last -10.5%);
Q1 Business Inventories 0.5% (last -0.1%)