Asian Market Review - 14th of August 2019

Asian markets have turned broadly higher on Wednesday morning after the U.S. announced delays to tariffs overnight. The tariffs were meant to begin on September 1, but have been delayed until December 15. The items being delayed include smartphones, laptops and gaming consoles, as well as some toys, clothing products and shoes.

On mainland China the Shanghai Composite is trading 0.8% higher, while the smaller cap Shenzhen Composite trades up by 1.3%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is also trading 0.9% higher, despite the protests that have been weighing on investor sentiment all week.

In Japan the Nikkei opened to strength as well, and is trading 0.8% higher during the lunch break. Weakness overnight from the Yen is helping to support shares of Japanese exporters. Softbank is up by 1.7% today and Toyota has a 0.8% gain.

Meanwhile in Australia the S&P/ASX 200 is heading into the final hour of trading for the day with a slight gain of less than 0.07%. The big four banks are trading modestly lower today. Miners are making good gains, with BHP up 0.6%, Rio Tinto adding 2.5%, and Fortescue Metals advancing 2.8%.

South Korea’s Kospi is leading major Asian markets higher today with a gain of 1.1%, helped by a jump of 1.9% in shares of Samsung, while in Taiwan the Taiex is trading up by 1.2%.

Southeast Asian markets are gaining as well, with Indonesia’s Jakarta Composite advancing 0.9%, the KLCI in Malaysia up by 0.5%, and the Straits Times in Singapore inching up by 0.2%.