Nikkei 225 added 0.4% to 38,364.27, Kospi was 0.22% lower and closed at 2,701.69, S&P/ASX 200 slid to 8,023.9, Hang Seng index was 0.14% lower
Asia-Pacific markets mostly dropped on Friday as investors awaited U.S. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s comments at the Jackson Hole gathering of global central bankers.
In the past, Powell has outlined broad policy initiatives and provided clues about the U.S. policy path at Jackson Hole.
In Asia, data from Japan showed the country’s headline inflation at 2.8% in July, unchanged from the previous month.
Core inflation, which strips out prices of fresh food, sat at 2.7%.
However, the so called “core-core” inflation rate, which strips out prices of both fresh food and energy and is tracked by the BoJ, declined to 1.9% in July from 2.2% in June.
This is the lowest the “core-core” inflation rate has reached since September 2022.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 added 0.4% to 38,364.27, while the Topix gained 0.5% and ended at 2,684.72. Both indexes reached their highest level since August 1, a day before the Asia markets meltdown.
Bank of Japan’s Governor Kazuo Ueda told the country’s parliament on Friday that the central bank will remain highly vigilant to market moves, adding that the markets remained unstable, Reuters reported.
South Korea’s Kospi was 0.22% lower and closed at 2,701.69, and the small-cap Kosdaq declined slightly to end at 773.26. The small cap index logged a third consecutive day of losses.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 slid just below the flatline to 8,023.9, snapping a 10-day winning streak.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was 0.14% lower as of its final hour, while mainland China’s CSI 300 reversed losses to gain 0.42%, ending at 3,327.19. The CSI had slid to a new six-month low, before changing course to gain.
Early Friday, Chinese tech giant Alibaba Group said in a statement that it would convert its secondary listing in Hong Kong to a primary listing, making the firm dual listed on both in Hong Kong and in New York.
Our voluntary conversion to dual primary listing does not involve any issue of new shares and/or fund-raising, it said.
