Asian stock market did not show a single direction. Thus, some of the indicators are falling: the Chinese Shanghai Composite and Shenzhen Composite fell by 0.16% each, the Australian S&P/ASX 200 - by 0.68%. The rest of the region's indexes show growth: the Korean KOSPI added quite a bit - 0.09%, the Hong Kong Hang Seng Index a little more - 0.41%. The Japanese Nikkei 225 showed the biggest rise, gaining 2.37%.
After the release of statistics regarding the decrease in inflation in the US to 8.5% last month compared to 9.1% in June, investors are trying to predict further actions of the US Federal Reserve.
There is an assumption that a decision will be made at the central bank's next meeting, to raise the rate by only 0.5%, and not 0.75%, as previously expected.
Malaysian GDP growth amounted to 8.9% in April-June this year compared to the same period in 2021, as well as 5% compared to the first quarter of 2022. At the same time, the indicator exceeded the expectations of analysts, who predicted its growth by 6.3%. The country's central bank notes that GDP growth was due to an increase in demand and the opening of borders.
Among the components of the Japanese Nikkei 225, the largest increase in share prices was shown by Rakuten Group (+7.5%), Pacific Metals (+7.3%), Japan Steel Works (+5.9%), and Fanuc (+5.3%). ).
Softbank Group shares rose 5.8% on the company's announcement of an upcoming major deal to sell a block of securities to Alibaba Group Holding for a total of 4.6 trillion yen (equivalent to 34.58 billion US dollars).
Share price of Mitsui & Co. increased by 2.7% after the announcement of the upcoming sale of a 20% stake in the Australian coal producer Stanmore Resources, Ltd., which owns the remaining 80% of the securities. The total amount of the transaction will be 380 million US dollars.
Among the components of the Hang Seng Index, Li Ning (+4.8%), China Hongqiao Group (+4.1%), Sunny Optical Technology Group (+2.7%), as well as CNOOC and Sinopec, increased by 2.5% and 1.9% respectively.
Slightly less growth was shown by Alibaba Group Holding, Ltd. (+1.1%), JD.com (+0.5%), and Xiaomi, Corp. (+0.8%).
Securities price of Semiconductor Manufacturing International, Corp. (SMIC) fell 1% as the company's net profit fell to $514.3 million in April-June this year compared to the same period in 2021, when the profit was $687.8. Nevertheless, the company's revenues increased from last year's figure of $1.34 billion to $1.9 billion, and this was higher than analysts' forecasts.
Among the components of the Korean KOSPI, Hyundai Motor (+1.6%), as well as Samsung Electronics (+0.3%) increased in share prices.
There is no single direction between Australian companies. For example, BHP shares fell 0.7%. At the same time, Insurance Australia Group added 0.3% as the company posted a net profit of A$347M (equivalent to US$246.6M) in the last fiscal year, compared to a net loss of A$427M. dollars received by the company for fiscal year 2021.
