Japan, Hong Kong lead gains in Asia-Pacific markets as investors digest outsized Fed rate cut
Investors in Asia will parse Fed's decision, New Zealand GDP figures, August trade data from Malaysia, unemployment rate from Australia.
Koichiko
The Bank of Japan headquarters is seen in Tokyo on January 30, 2017. The Bank of Japan will pull the plug on its eight-year negative interest rate policy in April, according to more than 80% of economists polled by Reuters, marking a long-awaited major shift from a global outlier central bank.
Kazuhiro Nogi | Afp | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific markets rose in choppy trading Thursday, as investors assessed the Federal Reserve's decision to cut interest rates by a half-percentage point.
Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 2.13% to end at 37,155.33, while the broad-based Topix climbed 2.01% to finish at 2,616.87.
The Fed lowered its benchmark borrowing rate by a half percentage point, bringing its target range to 4.75% to 5%.
In lockstep with the Fed, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority cut its interest rate by 50 basis points to 5.25%, as the city's currency is pegged to the greenback.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rose 2.17% in the final hour of trade.
The Bank of Japan has kicked off a two-day meeting ending Friday, where the central bankers will make a key rate decision, after the central bank ended its decades-long ultra-low interest rates regime earlier this year.
The Japanese yen strengthened slightly to 142.18 against the U.S. dollar in afternoon trading.
Mainland China's CSI 300 was 0.8% higher settling at 3,196.36, led by real estate stocks which were up more than 3%.
South Korea's blue-chip Kospi ended 0.21% higher at 2,580.8, while the small-cap Kosdaq climbed 0.86% to 739.15.
Australia's national seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remained steady in August at 4.2%, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics, in line with Reuters-polled analysts' expectation, while employment additions at 47,500 surpassed estimates of 25,000 additions.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 surged 0.61% to close at 8,191.9, hitting a fresh record high.
New Zealand's GDP for the second quarter contracted by 0.2% from the previous quarter, according to the official data released Thursday morning, less than Reuters poll estimates of a 0.4% decline.
Taiwan's central bank is set to make a key rate decision Thursday, and release its revised economic growth and inflation forecasts for this year.
The Taiwan Weighted Index rose 1.68% to finish at 22,042.69.
Overnight in the U.S., all three major indexes fell, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.25% to 41,503.1, while the S&P 500 fell 0.29% to end at 5,618.26. The Nasdaq Composite fell 0.31% to 17,573.3.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 surged to fresh highs during intraday trading before reversing course to close lower.
—CNBC's Hakyung Kim and Samantha Subin contributed to this report.
