Asian equities take bullish lead from record-setting US stocks

On the floor of the New York exchange -- US stocks continue to hit fresh records © Getty

Thursday 03.15 BST

What you need to know

• Asian equities push higher after record close in New York
• Mining giants lose ground
• China GDP grows 6.8% in Q3
• Australia unemployment drops to 4-year low

Overview

Asian equities gained on Thursday, taking the lead from New York. The energy sector was sluggish despite oil finding light support and currency markets were quiet.

Hot topic

Major Asian bourses edged higher on Thursday, building from new highs on Wall Street where the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 23,000 overnight.

Tokyo’s Topix index had the biggest gains, up 0.5 per cent. The S&P/ASX 200 Sydney was up 0.2 per cent as mining companies partially offset gains from the financial, technology and industrial segments.

Rio Tinto was down 2.6 per cent after the company and two former senior executives were hit with US fraud charges on Wednesday. BHP Billiton was down 1.8 per cent after reporting a slight drop in quarterly iron ore output.

South Korea’s Kospi added 0.2 per cent and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was up 0.1 per cent. The key bourses in Shanghai and Shenzhen were down 0.3 per cent and 0.2 per cent, respectively.

Commodities

Oil saw minor gains having lost ground late in the prior session after a report from the US Energy Information Administration showed a rise in gasoline stocks. The international benchmark Brent crude and US marker West Texas Intermediate were each 0.1 per cent higher at $58.20 and $52.10 a barrel, respectively.

The lift did not flow through to oil-related equities, however, with the S&P ASX Energy index down 0.5 per cent and the energy segment on the Topix index down 0.3 per cent.

Gold was 0.2 per cent lower at $1,279 an ounce.

Forex and fixed income

China’s economy grew 6.8 per cent in the third quarter, below the previous period but ahead of the government’s full-year target. The renminbi weakened following the data release, down 0.2 per cent at $6.6329.

The Australian dollar gained as much as 0.3 per cent after data showed unemployment in the country unexpectedly sank to a four-year low in September.

The currency markets were otherwise quiet, however, with the US dollar index — which measures the greenback against a basket of peers — flat.

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