Asian Markets Mixed In Cautious Trading As Investors Await Cues

The mood in Asian financial markets is largely cautious on Tuesday with several markets in the region closed for Lunar New Year holidays. There are no cues from Wall Street either as U.S. markets were shut on Monday for President’s Day.

Mainland Chinese, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan and South Korea markets were closed are closed today.

The Australian market is up in positive territory thanks largely to strong buying the resources sector. Technology and real estate stocks are weak, while shares from the rest of the sectors are turning in a mixed performance.

Investors are reacting to a slew of earnings updates and digesting the minutes from RBA’s policy meeting.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index was up 37.50 points or 0.42% at 8,974.60 a little while ago, while the broader All Ordinaries index was up 27.80 points or 0.3% at 9,191.60.

BHP Group is up more than 6.5% after reporting underlying earnings and revenue that beat expectations.

JB Hi-Fi is soaring 8.5%, and Pro Medicus is up 7.3%. Qantas Airways, QBE and Harvey Norman Holdings are among some of the notable gainers.

Reliance Worldwide and Challenger are down sharply, losing about 5% and 2%, respectively, after their quarterly earnings fell short of expectations.

Contact Energy, Lynas Corporation, Sims Metal, Computershare, SEEK and Insurance Australia are also notably lower.

The minutes of the Reserve Bank of Australia’s most recent meeting showed the central bank raised interest rates earlier this month because it judged inflation had become more persistent and financial conditions were no longer tight enough to bring prices under control.

However, the RBA said it was uncertain over the outlook for inflation and the economy, leaving it without a “high degree of confidence in any particular path for the cash rate.”

The minutes showed board members concluded that underlying inflationary pressure had intensified beyond just temporary measures, and had also become much more broad-based. The board also said that it was no longer confident that financial conditions remained restrictive enough.

The Japanese market is down in negative territory, losing ground for a fourth straight session, with losses in technology and defense sectors weighing the benchmark Nikkei 225 down.

At the end of the morning session, the Nikkei 225 was down 451.86 points or about 0.8% at 56,354.55.

Toho Zinc, Kawasaki, Softbank, Hitachi, Furukawa Holdings, Recruit Holdings, Japan Steel Works, NEC, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Sony, Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding and Mitsui Mining are down 3%-6%.

Among the gainers, Sumco, Sumitomo Dainippon, Sojitz and Nissan are moving up by 5%-6.5%. Toto, Nikon Corporation, Dai-ichi Life, Toray Industries, Shimizu Corporation, Aeon and Nexon are up 2%-4%.

The New Zealand market is modestly lower in cautious trading. The NZX 50 was down 41.50 points or 0.31% at 13,076.41 a little while ago.

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