Asia Mixed on Monday as China Cut 1-year Loan Rate, Leave 5-year Unchanged

This morning (Aug, 21), The opening direction of Asia-Pacific market of this week was mixed. Some major indices are up such as Japan’s NIKKEI rised the most over +0.9% to 31,700, South Korean’s KOSPI went up by +0.6% to 2,520.

Some indices are down as Singapore’s STI also dropped by -0.5% to 3,160, HSI (Hang Seng Index) dropped by -0.9% to 17,7700, New Zealand’s NZX 50 is the most red by -1.3% to 11,460, while other indices didn’t move as much.

These movement happened after China central bank slightly cut rate for mortgages peg on 1-year LPR from 3.55% to 3.45% and stand 5-year LPR at 4.2% which were a weaker cut than expected as the real estate crisis continue.

China Yuan (CNY) and New Zealand Dollar (NZD) still continued to weakening their value comparing to USD by 0.3% and 0.1% While energy price such as WTI and Brent crude oil both went up by +0.9% back to $82 and $85 levels.