Asia stocks advance before Fed, dollar treads water
Thursday, 19 March 2015 00:05
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Reuters: Asian stocks shook off a slow start and rose on Wednesday, led by China shares, while the dollar marked time as markets waited for the Federal Reserve’s policy statement for clues to when U.S. interest rates will rise.
Following Asia’s lead, spreadbetters forecast a slightly higher open for Britain’s FTSE, Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC although caution towards the Fed’s statement due later in the day was expected to limit gains.
Bouncing back from an earlier dip, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.5%.Chinese shares, already sitting atop multi-year highs, rallied for a sixth straight day. Soft Chinese data failed to dampen sentiment and instead raised hopes Beijing would make fresh stimulus moves.
The Shanghai Composite Index .SSEC reached its highest since May 2008, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng, South Korea’s Kospi and Malaysian and Thai stocks also gained.
Japan’s Nikkei erased early losses to rise 0.6% and reach a fresh 15-year high. Australian shares also clawed out of the red and were flat.
The euro was steady at $1.0594, having crawled back from a 12-year low of $1.0457 plumbed on Monday as dollar bulls held back before the Fed’s statement.
The dollar index stood little changed at 99.615. Over the past week, it had advanced to a 12-year high above the 100.00 threshold, thanks in part to the euro tumbling on the European Central Bank’s quantitative easing scheme.
At 0550 GMT, the dollar was at 121.38 yen JPY=, flat for the day. It has been confined to a narrow range after touching an eight-year peak of 122.04 last week.
