Most Asian stock markets went up on Thursday, with technology stocks doing the best. This was because the Federal Reserve’s most recent meeting raised expectations that the central bank would eventually become more dovish. On the other hand, Indian markets fell behind because Adani Group continued to lose money.
The Taiwan Weighted Index and the KOSPI were the best performers of the day. The Taiwan weighted index went up 1.1%, and the KOSPI went up 0.8%. The Hang Seng index in Hong Kong also went up by 0.4%.
On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve did what was expected and raised interest rates. It also said that it plans to keep raising rates to slow inflation. But this made people think that the resulting damage to the economy could force the bank to cut interest rates as soon as late 2023.
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Most risky markets went up because of this idea, and Wall Street indexes also went up overnight. The NASDAQ Composite, which is mostly made up of tech companies, grew the most among its peers.
After being hurt by rising interest rates through 2022, Asian stocks are especially interested in the possibility of a Fed pivot.
Indian stocks were behind their peers. The Nifty 50 and BSE Sensex 30 indexes traded in a flat-to-low range, which was the same as their peers. Most of the losses came from companies in the Adani Group, as well as industrials and bank stocks that were linked to the conglomerate. This was because the Adani Group suddenly pulled a $2.5 billion share offering by its flagship company, Adani Enterprises Ltd. (NS:ADEL).
The 2023 budget, which came out on Wednesday, was also taken into account by the Indian markets. The budget showed that there would be more tax breaks and that the government would spend more this year.
Consumer goods giant ITC Ltd. (NS:ITC) did the best on both Indian indexes, rising 5.5% to a record high. Tech heavyweights like Infosys Ltd. (NS:INFY) and HCL Technologies Ltd. (NS:HCLT) also did well.
Chinese stocks fell behind their peers because there was still doubt about whether China’s economy would get better this year. After Beijing eased most of its anti-COVID measures earlier this year, government and private PMI data sets released this week showed a mixed picture of the economy.
The Shanghai-Shenzhen CSI 300 index went down by 0.3%, with major investment houses and industrial stocks losing the most. On the other hand, the Shanghai Composite index went up by 0.1%, with major technology stocks helping to make up for losses in other areas.
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Now, people are paying attention to the next central bank meetings in the Eurozone and the UK, which are likely to lead to more interest rate hikes. In the coming weeks, the markets are also waiting for a lot of earnings reports from big Chinese companies.
