Asia close: Nikkei 225 hits two-week high

The Nikkei-225 climbed to a two-week high on Wednesday, boosted by shares of exporters as Japan´s currency, the yen, weakened versus the US dollar.

MSCI´s Asia Pacific index edged higher by 0.1%, closing the month with a 1.2% gain which came on the back of a 5.8% jump in July.

Japan´s yen ended the session at 103.28 versus the greenback, capping a five-day streak of losses - its longest since March 2016 – as markets moved to price-in a modestly higher probability of a Fed rate hike come December 2016, if not sooner.

Monthly US jobs data due out on the following Friday continued to loom large on the horizon and might be critical in shaping expectations for the US central bank´s policies, especially over the very short-term.

To take note of, in remarks to Bloomberg TV US Fed vice chair Stanley Fisher did not make any further remarks regarding the possible timing of the next Fed hike, emphasising instead the central bank´s ‘data-dependency’.

Nevertheless, a much better-than-expected reading on US consumer confidence boosted the US dollar.

The US Conference Board´s gauge of consumer sentiment surprised with a 4.4 point rise to 101.1 points (consensus: 97.0).

Industrial production in Japan was flat month-on-month in July, according to the country´s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Indusrty (consensus: 0.8%).

Trading on most Asian bourses was fairly restrained, with Hong Kong´s Hang Seng dipping 0.1% and South Korea´s Kospi drifting lower by 0.3%.

Shanghai´s Composite index rose 0.4%.

Making global headlines, South Korea´s Hanjin Shipping, filed for court receivership.

The container shipper – one of the world´s ten largest firms in the space – had been trying to reschedule some of its debt which was falling due after incurring net losses each yaer from 2011 to 2014.