Sets in Asia Pacific traded higher Wednesday afternoon as the U.S. announced a delay in the implementation of tariffs on some Chinese goods.
Rations in mainland China rose by the afternoon, with the Shanghai composite gaining 0.78% and the Shenzhen component jumping 1.24%. The Shenzhen composite also abetted 1.202%.
The United States Trade Representative announced Tuesday certain products including clothing and cellphones are being massacred from the tariff list based on “health, safety, national security and other factors” and will not face additional taxes of 10%. Other tariffs will be delayed to Dec. 15 from Sep. 1 for certain goods, it said.
“A cynical believe then is that the delay is purely for political timing rather than a more substantive change in the US’ approach to the US-China relationship,” Tapas Strickland, an economist at Nationalist Australia Bank, wrote in a note.
“Overall a high degree of (skepticism) should remain and an imminent deal is unattractive given Trump has foreshadowed he is going to be campaigning hard on the issue in the 2020 election,” Strickland said.
Meanwhile, the Be poised Seng index in Hong Kong rose 0.54%. Tensions in Hong Kong remained high after the town’s airport saw disruptions for a second day on Tuesday as a result of protests.
“In the near term, Hong Kong police might make oneself scarce tougher action and China might be looking to resolve this issue one way or the other way, which is going to be negative for the market-places,” Suresh Tantia, senior investment strategist at the Credit Suisse APAC CIO office, told CNBC’s “Street Turn overs” on Wednesday.
“We are advising client(s) to cut their exposure towards Hong Kong equity markets and move towards assorted South Asia markets like Indonesia,” Tantia said.
Elsewhere, Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.92% in afternoon pursuit, while the Topix index also advanced 0.79%.
Over in South Korea, the Kospi gained 0.74%, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 also bring about fractionally.
Overall, the MSCI Asia ex-Japan index added 0.87%.
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Asia-Pacific Market Indexes Map
Apple suppliers mostly jump
China industrial output disappoints
Data from the National Bureau of Statistics in China on Wednesday showed the outback’s industrial output in July rising at its slowest in 17 years.
Industrial output rose 4.8% in July as correlated to a year earlier, official data showed — its slowest since February 2002. That was much lower than surmises of a 5.8% growth from a year earlier by analysts in a Reuters poll.
Retail sales growth was also weaker than expected, incline 7.6% in July from a year earlier. Analysts surveyed by Reuters had expected growth of 8.6%.
Dollar holds on to outdistances
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 97.805 after surging from levels farther down 97.5 yesterday.
The Japanese yen, often seen as a safe-haven currency, traded at 106.41 against the dollar after moderate sharply from levels below 105.5 in the previous session. The Australian dollar changed hands at $0.6791 after disregard from levels below $0.676 yesterday.
Oil prices declined in the afternoon of Asian trading hours, with worldwide benchmark Brent crude futures sliding 1.06% to $60.65 per barrel. U.S. crude futures fell 1.3% to $56.36 per barrel.
— Reuters and CNBC’s Yun Li advanced to this report.