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Asian equities edged lower on Friday as investors grappled with mixed earnings reports, while the Japanese yen held firm ahead of the Bank of Japan’s policy review.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.32 percent, set to snap a three-day winning streak. The index is down nearly 3 percent for the month and 30 percent for the year.
Japan’s Nikkei fell 1.33 percent, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 index lost 0.55 percent. China’s stock market was 0.60 percent lower, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index down 0.5 percent.
China stocks have had a rough week, with investors reeling from Monday’s brutal sell-off. Bleak industrial profit figure and widening COVID-19 outbreaks have also weighed on sentiment.
On Thursday, the European Central Bank raised interest rates again, but said “substantial” progress had already been made in its bid to fight off a surge in inflation.
The less hawkish comments from the ECB added to expectations that central banks are likely to slow their pace of rate hikes, especially after the Bank of Canada surprised the market by delivering a smaller-than-anticipated rate hike on Wednesday.
Rodrigo Catril, senior currency strategist at National Australia Bank, said the ECB delivered a 75 bps hike as expected, but it sounded less committal on future rate hikes.
