Asia close: Stocks broadly higher after dovish Fed comments

Asian stock markets were mixed on Thursday after the US Federal Reserve said it was making progress on bringing down inflation, although warned that more interest rate hikes were on the way.

Shares in Japan, China and Australia all made gains, while Hong Kong and India were lower, the latter due to the ongoing crisis at Adani group.

Sentiment was boosted by a rally on Wall Street after the Fed raised its key lending rate by 0.25 percentage points, smaller than previous hikes. Chair Jerome Powell said the “disinflationary process has started” but “ongoing increases” in rates will be needed.

The Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.3% to 3,284.50 and the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo added 0.1% to 27,374.60. Australia’s ASX was up 0.19% to 7,511.

South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.5% as the nation’s consumer price index rose 5.2% in the first month of 2023 on an annualised basis, ticking upward for the first time in three months, according to government data.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.5% as new data showed the economy contracted by 4.2% in the fourth quarter, marking four straight quarters of reversal in 2022. Real GDP also shrank by 3.5% year-on-year.

India’s BSE was off 0.17% after another large sell-off in tycoon Gautam Adani's empire, with trading in flagship firm Adani Enterprises and five others suspended after they lost 10%. Adani Enterprises had plunged 28.45% on Wednesday.

The losses came after the group cancelled a multi-billion-dollar share sale in reaction to the across-the-board collapse.

Adani's empire has lost more than $104bn following allegations of accounting fraud last week by US short-seller Hindenburg Research that the firm has rejected.

Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com