Taiwan Taiex up 2%, RBI rate decision coming soon

SINGAPORE — Taiwan stocks led the gains in Asia-Pacific markets as investors shrug off Chinese military exercises after a visit by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Taiwan’s Taiex jumped 2.03%, with chipmaker TSMC rising 3%. The index fell this week as US-China tensions rose during Pelosi’s trip.

Markets seem indifferent to Chinese exercises around Taiwan, although Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi said Chinese missiles had landed in Japan’s exclusive economic zone and called the military exercises a “serious problem”, according to an NBC News report.

The Nikkei 225 in Japan rose 0.78% and the Topix index gained 0.75%.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific stocks outside Japan added 0.76%.

The Reserve Bank of India announced that it would raise rates by 50 basis points to 5.4%.

Of 63 respondents to a Reuters poll, 26 expected the outcome, while 20 expected a 35 basis point increase.

“We believe optimal policy anchoring will require at least another 50 basis point hike,” Vishnu Varathan, head of economics and strategy at Mizuho Bank, wrote in a Friday note ahead of the decision. . He pointed to underlying inflation risks and a hawkish Fed.

“All in all, it is in the interests… of the RBI to pre-load 50bps rather than spare 15-25bps but squander the macro stability derived from the May/June hikes,” he said. he declared.

After the announcement, the Nifty 50 was up 0.28% and India’s BSE Sensex rose 0.34%.

The Indian Rupee strengthened slightly to trade at 79.03 to the dollar.

Overnight in the United States, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 85.68 points, or 0.26%, to 32,726.82. The S&P 500 was roughly flat at 4,151.94 at the close. The Nasdaq Composite gained 0.41% to 12,720.58.

Friday’s jobs report is expected to show that 258,000 jobs were added in the United States last month, according to estimates by economist Dow Jones. That’s less than the 372,000 added in June.

The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was last at 105.854 after falling recently from around 106.5.

The Japanese yen changed hands at 133.22 to the dollar. The Australian dollar was at $0.6963, after falling sharply above $0.7 on Tuesday.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude rose 0.4% to $88.89 a barrel, after losing 2.3% in the previous session.

Brent crude futures gained 0.27% to $94.37 a barrel after ending Thursday’s session down 2.75% to $94.12 a barrel. Both benchmarks hit their lowest levels in months.