Asia-Pacific (APAC) share markets were mostly higher on Wednesday after a stronger night on Wall Street where inflation data boosted hopes of lower interest rates.
But Australia and India were swimming against the positive regional tide in morning trading in which share price indices across APAC showed gains ranging from modest to more than 1%.
As of 12:15 pm AEST (2:15 am GMT), Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was down by 0.7% at 8,817.1 points and India’s BSE Sensex was 0.5% lower at 80,235.59 points.
The mood was more buoyant in South Korea’s where the Kospi 200 had gained 0.5% to 3,206.23 and in Japan where the Nikkei 225 was 1.3% higher at 43,285.53.
Also higher were equities in mainland China, where the Shanghai Composite was up 0.2% to 3,671.23 points and the CSI 300 had gained 0.2% to close at 4,152.56, and in Hong Kong, where the Hang Seng Index dropped 0.1% to 23,887.20
In New York on Tuesday (Wednesday AEST), the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.10%, the S&P 500 added 1.13% and the Nasdaq Composite put on 1.39% during daytime trading before softening slightly in after-hours futures trading.
European share markets had closed mixed overnight with the UK’s FTSE 100 up by 0.2% at 9,147.81 and France’s CAC 40 0.7% higher to 7,753.42 but Germany’s DAX 0.2% lower at 24,024.78.
Gold rose 0.1% to US$3,349.85 per ounce while Brent crude oil dipped 0.1% to US$66.05 per barrel.