FX.co ★ Asian Markets Trade Mixed

On Thursday, Asian stock markets delivered mixed results, influenced by the encouraging cues received from global markets the night before. Expectations were upset with Japan and Singapore's GDP data falling short and Japan surprisingly sliding into a recession. Additionally, Australia reported an unexpected lower employment growth and an increase in the unemployment rate. On Wednesday, most Asian Markets were on a downturn.

The Australian stock market experienced significant gains on Thursday, compensating some of the losses seen in the previous four sessions. This was largely due to robust signals received from global markets the day before. The primary S&P/ASX 200 index hovered slightly below the 7,600 level, with significant gains from the technology and financial sectors.

After reaching an early high of 7,621.30, the S&P/ASX 200 index gained 50.10 points or 0.66 percent to 7,597.80. While the wider All Ordinaries index rose by 50.80 points or 0.65 percent to 7,841.30. On Wednesday, Australian stocks took a significant dip.

Amongst the significant miners, BHP Group suffered almost a 2 percent loss whereas Rio Tinto's stocks were down by 0.4 percent. However, Fortescue Metals and Mineral Resources’ stock increased by more than 1 percent and almost 1 percent, respectively.

In the oil sector, while Santos lost 0.5 percent and Woodside Energy saw a decrease by almost 1 percent, Origin Energy saw a gain of almost 3 percent, with Beach Energy marginally rising by 0.2 percent.

Technology shares also reflected growth, with a surge of over 5 percent for Appen and nearly 5 percent for Xero. Owner of Afterpay, Block, rose by nearly 4 percent, also WiseTech Global's stocks increased by more than 4 percent. However, Zip shares declined by around 2 percent.

Big names in the banking sector including Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, National Australia Bank, and ANZ Banking, all saw a growth of nearly 1 percent each.

For gold miners, while Northern Star Resources fell by 0.1 percent, Evolution Mining, Gold Road Resources, Newmont, and Resolute Mining all saw growth ranging from 0.4 percent to over 2 percent.

An interesting update was a skyrocketing 28 percent growth in shares of Altium, following a A$9.1 billion takeover proposal from Japanese group Renesas.

In January, Australia's adjusted unemployment rate was announced to be 4.1 percent, above the projected 4.0 percent, up from 3.9 percent in December. Compared to the predicted increase of 26,400 jobs, the Australian economy managed to add only 500 jobs to last month's total of 14,201,900. The rate of employment participation remained at 66.8 percent which was less than the forecast of 66.9 percent. On Thursday, the Aussie dollar was trading at $0.649.

Despite domestic statistics indicating that Japan had unexpectedly fallen into a recession, positive international indicators led the Japanese market to rise significantly on Thursday. Reflecting the overall growth were index heavyweights and technology stocks. At morning close, the benchmark Nikkei 225 Index reached 37,948.35, up by 245.03 points or 0.65 percent.

Big names like SoftBank Group recorded an increase of almost 3 percent in stocks. On the other hand, despite a 1 percent increase in Honda's stocks, Toyota saw a decline of almost 1 percent.

The banking sector saw Sumitomo Mitsui Financial rise by more than 1 percent, while Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and Mizuho Financial experienced a marginal increase between 0.1 to 0.5 percent.

Among exporters, as Canon fell by 0.1 percent, Mitsubishi Electric saw an increase of almost 3 percent. However, Sony's stocks experienced a significant drop of more than 8 percent after they adjusted their full-year outlook for the gaming division, particularly reducing the PlayStation 5 sales outlook.

Major gainers comprised Ebara with a 16 percent rise, Rakuten Group soared by almost 15 percent, and MS&AD Insurance Group saw an increase of almost 14 percent. Familiar names like Sumitomo Heavy Industries, Resonac Holdings, Sompo Holdings, and Tokio Marine experienced substantial growth, while Kubota, Nitto Denko, T&D Holdings, and Shin-Etsu Chemical also enjoyed considerable gains. Idemitsu Kosan stocks saw an increase of almost 4 percent.BANDAI NAMCO has seen a significant drop in shares, falling nearly 15 percent, with Toppan Holdings close behind, seeing a drop of almost 10 percent. Other companies such as Sapporo Holdings, Takara Holdings, Kirin Holdings, and Olympus are also facing declines in their stocks, falling more than 8, 6, 5, and 4 percent respectively. In addition, Nippon Express and Eisai have also seen their shares fall by almost 4 percent each. Yamaha, Nippon Paper Industries and Fujikura did not fare much better, losing over 3 percent each, while Alps Alpine, Shiseido and Asahi Group are down by almost 3 percent each.

In terms of the economy, Japan’s gross domestic product (GDP) fell by a seasonally adjusted 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2023, missing the predicted increase of 0.2 percent. This follows a downwardly revised decline of 0.8 percent in the third quarter, originally reported as a 0.7 percent drop. Annually, the GDP saw a 0.4 percent drop, following a downwardly revised 3.3 percent drop in the previous quarter, originally reported as a 2.9 percent drop.

Capital expenditure decreased by 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter following a 0.6 percent slip in Q3. Meanwhile, external demand increased by 0.2 percent after falling 0.1 percent in the prior quarter. Concurrently, the GDP price index rose by 3.8 percent, a decrease from 5.8 percent, while private consumption dipped 0.2 percent after a 0.3 percent decline in the third quarter.

Regarding currency markets, the U.S. dollar is traded around the lower 150 yen-range.

In other parts of Asia, Taiwan and Indonesia saw shares rise by 2.8 and 1.5 percent respectively. Hong Kong and Singapore also experienced gains, with increases of 0.2 and 0.6 percent respectively. However, New Zealand, South Korea, and Malaysia did not fare as well, with shares falling between 0.1 and 0.3 percent each.

On Wall Street, stocks rebounded strongly during Wednesday's trading, somewhat offsetting the previous session's sell-off. The Nasdaq led the recovery with a surge of 203.55 points or 1.3 percent to 15,859.15. The S&P 500 jumped 47.45 points or 1.0 percent to 5,000.62, and the Dow climbed 151.52 points or 0.4 percent to 38,424.27.

Across the major European markets, upward trends were observed. The German DAX Index rose by 0.4 percent, and the French CAC 40 Index and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index both increased by 0.7 percent.

Crude oil prices settled lower on Wednesday, ending a seven-day winning streak following reports of a substantial increase in US crude oil inventories the previous week. The West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March ended down $1.23 or about 1.6 percent at $76.64 a barrel.