Asian Shares: High Oil Prices Help Sentiment in Asia-Pacific Markets
May 17 2016 - 12:03AM
Dow Jones News
By Dominique Fong
Shares in Asia were mixed Tuesday as oil prices hovered near a
high for the year.
Japan's Nikkei Stock Average rose 0.9%, Australia's S&P/ASX
200 gained 0.5%, and Korea's Kospi slipped 0.2%.
In China, the Shanghai Composite Index was off 0.6%, while Hong
Kong's Hang Seng Index was flat.
Energy shares were up across the region after oil prices hit a
fresh 2016 peak overnight. Australia's BHP Billiton Ltd. gained
2.4%, and Rio Tinto Ltd. climbed 1.1%. PetroChina Co. Ltd. rose
2.3%, and Cnooc Ltd. rose 2.5%.
"Definitely, higher oil prices are bringing good sentiment to
the stock market" in Singapore and across the region, said Margaret
Yang, market strategist with CMC Markets. Singapore's stock
benchmark, the FTSE Strait Times Index, was up 0.4%, its second
positive day in a row.
Hong Kongers were waiting for Zhang Dejiang, the No. 3 official
in the Chinese central government, to arrive in the city ahead of a
conference Wednesday about Beijing's "One Belt One Road"
initiative.
Speculation has been growing that Mr. Zhang could announce the
launch of a long-anticipated stock trading link between Hong Kong
and Shenzhen.
Shares of brokerage firms, whose trading business could benefit
from such a link, surged Monday on market expectations.
Meanwhile, in Japan, shares of Sony Financial Holdings Inc. fell
4.1% after the company said its fiscal-year profit fell, dragged by
its life insurance and banking businesses.
In Australia, the local dollar spiked on Tuesday, rising as much
as 0.8% against the U.S. dollar, after the Reserve Bank of
Australia said it was hesitant about making its recent
interest-rate cut.
The Australian dollar started the day on a strong footing, with
the overnight rally of crude oil buoying commodity currencies. The
minutes of the RBA's last monetary policy meeting, released
Tuesday, dampened investor views that more easing could be
ahead.
The price of Brent crude oil edged higher to trade recently at
$49.22 a barrel, helping drive Australia stocks higher, despite the
lower expectations for another rate cut.
Kosaku Narioka and Ewen Chew contributed to this article.
Write to Dominique Fong at Dominique.Fong@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 16, 2016 23:48 ET (03:48 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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