Asian stock markets maintain gains
Asia-Pacific markets maintain gains as investors evaluate inflation data from India and Japan.
Asia-Pacific markets pared back gains hours after opening higher on Tuesday, as stocks on Wall Street fell overnight and the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended an eight-day winning streak.
Investors in Asia evaluated India’s inflation figures. Data released on Monday showed that the consumer price index increased by 4.83 percent on an annual basis; This rate is almost parallel to economists’ expectations of 4.8 percent.
India’s wholesale inflation data will be released later in the day.
Data from the Bank of Japan showed corporate inflation was stable in April compared to a year earlier, but import prices rose 6.4 percent last month compared to last month, likely due to steep declines in the yen.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was flat compared to previous gains of 0.6 percent, while China’s CSI 300 index reversed gains to trade 0.14 percent lower.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 index and the broader Topix index traded flat.
South Korea’s Kospi index fell 0.1 percent, while the smaller Kosdaq gained 0.9 percent.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.4 percent.