SINGAPORE — Real estate stocks in Hong Kong dropped as Asia-Pacific markets traded mixed on Wednesday. Australia’s inflation rose and investors looked forward to the Fed’s policy decision.
Property firm Country Garden’s stock plunged 15.05% after it said it would raise 2.8 billion Hong Kong dollars ($360 million) by selling 870 million new shares.
The shares were priced at 3.25 Hong Kong dollars, around a 12.63% discount to Country Garden’s Tuesday close.
The Hang Seng Mainland Properties index was 6.29% lower.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 1.13% to 20,670.04, and the Hang Seng Tech index slipped 1.3%. Heavyweight Alibaba dropped 3.26% after popping Tuesday after it announced plans for a dual primary listing in Hong Kong.
Elsewhere in Asia, the Nikkei 225 in Japan gained 0.22% to 27,715.75, while the Topix index was 0.13% higher at 1,945.75.
Mainland China markets were mildly lower. The Shanghai Composite declined around 0.05% to 3,275.76 and the Shenzhen Component lost 0.07% to 12,399.69.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 advanced 0.23% to close at 6,823.2.
South Korea’s Kospi added 0.11% to 2,415.53, while the Kosdaq rose 0.73% to 795.7.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was 0.45% lower.
Australia CPI
Prices in Australia rose 6.1% in the second quarter compared to the same period a year ago, up from 5.1% in the first quarter of the year. Economists polled by Reuters saw inflation hitting 6.2%.
Kristina Clifton, an economist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, wrote in a note before the announcement that the CPI reading Down Under could influence the market’s expectations for future rate hikes.
“We expect that any impacts on the AUD from today’s CPI will be short lived because the darkening global outlook will be a greater weight on AUD,” she wrote.
The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday cut its global GDP forecasts for 2022 and 2023. It now expects growth to come in at 3.2% this year, 0.4 percentage points lower than its April projection.
The Australian dollar weakened to $0.6927 after the inflation print was reported.
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