Asian stocks were mostly lower yesterday as Chinese equities deepened their losses, souring risk sentiment that had improved earlier after the Federal Reserve provided a positive assessment of the US economy.
The dollar fell as some in the currency market had hoped the Fed would give a clearer indication that it could raise rates before end-2016.
South Korea’s Kospi and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng both shed 0.4%.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan, which briefly climbed to its highest level since August 2015, clung to gains and was last up 0.1%.
Shanghai fell 0.6% after shedding 1.9% the previous day.
News that Chinese regulators are planning a tough clampdown on wealth management products to curb risks to the banking system had weighed heavily on Chinese stocks, with investors still wading through the details.
Japan’s Nikkei declined more than 1%, undermined by a stronger yen and nerves before the bank of Japan’s monetary policy decision today.
With the Fed meeting over, the spotlight fell on the BoJ, under mounting pressure to ease monetary policy and keep abreast of the Japanese government’s large fiscal stimulus plan.
“The best-case scenario for the market is that the BoJ decides to increase government debt purchases without cutting interest rates further into negative territory,” said Hikaru Sato, a senior technical analyst at Daiwa Securities in Tokyo.
“But the BoJ can’t save face if it does not cut rates into negative territory after it introduced the negative interest rate policy (in January), so we need to brace for such possibility, too.” Spot gold hovered near a two-week high of $1,342.18 an ounce touched overnight when it gained 1.4%. Higher interest rates tend to diminish the appeal of non-yielding gold. The dollar index slipped to a nine-day low of 96.545, pulling back sharply from a 4-1/2-month high of 97.569 scaled early in the week.
The euro, which gained 0.7% overnight, edged up to a nine-day high of $1.1077.
The dollar was down 0.6% at 104.75 yen, with caution over potential monetary easing by the BoJ limiting the greenback’s losses.
Against the broadly weaker US currency, the Australian dollar was up 0.4% at $0.7524.
US crude rose 0.2% to $42.02 a barrel on bargain hunting after sliding to a three-month low of $41.68 on Wednesday after news US crude and gasoline stocks had surged.
Brent crude gained 0.2% to $43.55 a barrel.