HSNGY Hang Seng Bank Ltd (PK)

The Australian dollar reached its highest levels in nearly seven weeks Wednesday on news of strong economic expansion, while regional stock markets slipped after sharp gains the day before.

The Aussie dollar touched 0.7342 against its U.S. counterpart earlier, its highest level since Oct. 15, after the Australian Bureau of Statistics said gross domestic product in the third quarter grew 0.9% quarter over quarter and 2.5% from a year earlier. The Aussie dollar had been trading at US$0.7321 late Tuesday.

The expansion was due to a surge in commodity exports and was in line with economists' forecasts.

"The Australian dollar was probably one of the most shorted [Asian] currencies around and now a lot of short positions have been taken out over the past month," said Steven Leung, a director at UOB Kay Hian in Hong Kong.

The GDP data and the fact that the Reserve Bank of Australia seems far from cutting interest rates have buoyed the Aussie dollar, he explained.

Elsewhere, shares in the region slipped after a sharp gains Tuesday, when disappointing Chinese manufacturing data spurred hopes from stimulus from Beijing.

Japan's Nikkei Stock Average slipped 0.2%, Australia's fell 0.4% and South Korea's Kospi shed 0.3%.

China's official reading on factory activity slipped in November for the fourth straight month in a row.

Mr. Leung said he expected shares in Hong Kong to step back when the market opens, after the Hang Seng Index's 1.8% rise Tuesday.

"The gain was pretty staggering yesterday so a bit of a correction today would not be surprising," he said, adding that the market is [also] a little bit over worried about the interest rate hike in the U.S."

In the U.S., investors snapped up stocks Tuesday ahead of key economic data and the prospect of additional stimulus from the European Central Bank. Major U.S. indexes have stuck to narrow ranges in recent weeks ahead of meetings of the ECB this week and the Federal Reserve later in December.

Friday's U.S. payrolls data could offer further clues on the Fed's course.

Shares in Australia fell after iron ore prices reached a new decade low of $42.27 a ton overnight. The utilities sector on the S&P/ASX 200 was down 0.8%, while material shares were roughly flat.

Brent oil prices were off 0.4% at $44.28 a barrel. U.S. crude oil rose 0.3% to $41.74 a barrel overnight.

Gold prices rose 0.6% to $1,069.30 a troy ounce.

Write to Chao Deng at Chao.Deng@wsj.com

Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 01, 2015 21:05 ET (02:05 GMT)

Hang Seng Bank (PK) (USOTC:HSNGY)
Historical Stock Chart
From Mar 2024 to Apr 2024

Hang Seng Bank (PK) (USOTC:HSNGY)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2023 to Apr 2024