Stocks in the Asian region were seen mostly trading lower on Wednesday after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) cut its global economic growth outlook.
The IMF said it projects the global economy to grow 3.8% next year, down from the previous forecast of 4% made in June, while this year’s world economy growth is expected to come in at 3.3%. IMF also emphasized on the possible risks of rising geopolitical tensions.
The IMF is expecting the US Federal Reserve to start raising interest rates by mid-2015 as the spotlight remains on the minutes of the US Federal Reserve (Fed) from its latest monetary-policy meeting due later in the day for additional clues as to when the central bank would begin to raise interest rates.
In Japan, the benchmark Nikkei 225 index declined 1.46% to trade at 15,552.72 points at the time of writing, while Tokyo Topix index fell 1.54% to 1,271.06 points at the same time. The Japanese yen slightly strengthened against the US dollar, trading around 108.2 yen on Wednesday.
The nation’s current account surplus fell less than forecasted to 287.1 billion yen in August, while analysts expected a surplus of 200 billion yen.
Free Reports:
The smaller surplus was due to the decline in exports and primary income; however the current account surplus on a seasonally-adjusted basis expanded to 130.8 billion yen from 98.3 billion yen in July.
Meanwhile some of Japan’s heavy exporters saw declines, with Fuji Heavy Industries falling 2.7%, Hitachi Construction Machinery declined 2.5% and Kawasaki Heavy Industries lost 2.8%. Toyota Corp slumped 1.8%.
On the upbeat note, the Japanese film production company saw the second-biggest gain on the Nikkei 225, climbing 4% after increasing its full year profit outlook by 26% to 19.8 billion yen.
The Chinese markets resumed after a week-long holiday in celebration of National Day as the nation’s mainland benchmark Shanghai Composite gained 0.2% to 2,368.77 points at the time of writing, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index edged 0.84% lower to 23,226.15 points at the same time.
The South Korean Kospi index came in at 0.18% to 1,969.37 points.
In Sydney, the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index fell 0.81% to trade at 5,241.50 points, weighing financial, mining, oil and gas stocks lower.
Financial stocks that saw losses included the nation’s four main banks, ANZ and Commonwealth bank lost 0.6% each, National Australia Bank was down 0.5%, while Westpac bounced back and was trading flat around midday.
Miners saw losses; with the world’s mining giants Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton each declined 1.4% and 1.8% respectively during the early trading hours, with Rio reversing early losses after it turned down a takeover bid from the Swiss-based rival Glencore, according to reports.
The monetary policy statement released by the Reserve Bank of Australia showed that the central bank marinated a record-low policy rate to stimulate the economy’s growth.
European stocks opened in the red territory on Wednesday on speculation of a further global economic slowdown as the market focus on the release of the Federal Reserve minutes.
The European Euro Stoxx 50 was down 0.47% opening at 3,197.50, while the German DAX edged 0.59% to 9,382.80. In France, the benchmark CAC 40 lost 0.26% to 4,362.30 and UK’s FTSE 100 fell 0.27% to 6,557.30.
In other news, Spain’s industrial production declined in August to 1.8% from the 1.1% gain recorded in the previous month, on a yearly and non-seasonally adjusted basis, according to the Spanish National Statistics Institute.
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