Asian stock markets saw mixed figures on the fourth transaction day of the week. In China, consumer prices dropped 0.8% in January on a yearly basis. In Japan, the governor of the central bank, the Bank of Japan, said that even if it ends its negative interest rate policy, “it is hard to imagine a path in which it would then keep raising the interest rate rapidly.”
After this statement, the Japanese yen lost value to the US dollar. The Kospi index in South Korea rose 0.41% to 2,620 points, while the Shanghai composite index in China was 2,860 points, up 1%. The Nikkei 225 index in Japan completed the day at 36,863 points, gaining 2.06%, with USD/JPY parity trading at 142.2, down 0.1%.—AA
