Asia-Pacific markets traded mixed on Monday as investors began the final trading week of 2025, with gains in South Korea offset by declines in Australia and Japan amid thin year-end volumes.
By 11:40 am AEDT (12:40 am GMT), Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was down 0.1%, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 slipped 0.3%. In contrast, South Korea’s Kospi 200 surged 1.3% to trade near a fresh record high.
Market attention in Japan was focused on the Bank of Japan’s (BoJ) summary of opinions from its December policy meeting, which showed policymakers debating the need to continue raising interest rates to contain future inflationary pressures.
Several board members indicated that further increases were warranted, with the policy rate still deeply negative in inflation-adjusted terms.
“There is still considerable distance to the neutral interest rate level,” one opinion said, adding that the BoJ should raise rates at a pace of once every few months for the time being.
At its 18–19 December meeting, the BoJ lifted its policy rate to a 30-year high of 0.75% from 0.5%, marking another significant step in dismantling decades of ultra-loose monetary policy and near-zero borrowing costs.
In the United States, Wall Street ended slightly lower on Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged down 0.04%, the S&P 500 slipped 0.03%, and the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.1%.
Commodities were mixed. Brent crude oil dropped 2.5% to settle at US$60.24 per barrel, while spot gold climbed 1.2% to close at a fresh record high of US$4,533.21 per ounce.
In mainland China, markets posted modest gains on Friday, with the Shanghai Composite rising 0.1% to 3,963.7 and the CSI 300 adding 0.3% to 4,657.2.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was closed, last standing at 25,818.9, while India’s BSE Sensex finished 0.4% lower at 85,041.5.
European markets were also closed on Friday, contributing to subdued global trading conditions heading into the final days of the year.
