Asia defends mild gains, Australian stocks outperform

By FXStreet The stocks on the Asian bourses are seen posting moderate gains, tracking modest gains on the Wall Street overnight after Fed officials backed Yellen’s dovish tone, while month-end as well as quarter-end repatriation flows also keep the sentiment buoyed.

Month/ Quarter-end flows underpin Asian markets

The Japanese benchmark index, the Nikkei 225 trades modestly flat around 16,900 levels largely supported by higher financial and auto sector stocks amid fiscal year-end flows. However, the upside faced strong resistance falling oil prices crushed investors’ appetite for riskier assets.

Whilst the Chinese indices also struggle to keep the green, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite index up 0.20%, Shenzhen’s CSI300 advancing 0.16%. Markets in Hong Kong wavered between gains and losses, with the Hang Seng now down -0.08% at 20,791 points.

The Australian markets emerged a clear winner and rallied +1.43% to 5,081 on the back of sharp gains seen in the mining stocks. Mining giant BHP Billiton jumped almost 4% after its global competitor Tata Steel announced shutdown of the UK operations. Further, a rally in the heavily weighted Australian banking stocks also added to gains on the index.
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Source:: FX Street