Asian Stock Market: Nikkei, Shanghai ignore BoJ concerns amid upbeat China data, policy pivot talks

• Asian stocks remain firmer after Wall Street’s mixed close as central bank policy pivot looms.
• Chatters about BoJ policy tweak fails to weigh on Nikkei, stocks in China cheer reductions in industrial losses.
• Fed’s rate hike, readiness for September move can’t push back concerns suggesting nearness to peak rates.
• ECB, BOJ monetary policy decisions, US Q2 GDP eyed for clear directions.

Market sentiment in the Asia-Pacific region remains firmer, despite mixed closing of the Wall Street benchmarks, amid concerns supporting a sooner end to the rate hike spell at the major central banks. Adding strength to the optimism could be China’s upbeat industrial profits.

While portraying the mood, MSCI’s index of the Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan jumps to a five-month high while Japan’s Nikkei 225 rises 0.80% intraday to near 32,890 by the press time of early Thursday morning in Europe. It’s worth noting that US Dollar Index (DXY) fails to cheer the Fed’s 0.25% rate hike and readiness to lift the rates in September if needed while falling for the third consecutive day whereas the S&P500 Futures reverse the previous day’s pullback from the 16-month high.

Elsewhere, Australia’s ASX 200 also rise 0.80% amid mixed inflation clues whereas New Zealand’s NZX50 rises 0.70% on a day by the press time. Further, stocks in China and Hong Kong are upbeat as China's Industrial Profits for the January-June period improve to -16.8% compared to the -18.8% figure marked for the first five months of the year 2023, per China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data.

Furthermore, South Korea’s KOSPI cheers the Bank of Korea’s push for liquidity while Indonesia’s IDX Composite bucks the trend amid geopolitical concerns. Moving on, India’s GIFT Nifty and BSE Sensex also track major optimism. Additionally, the latest quarterly results from Facebook’s parent company Meta and Google's parent Alphabet have been promising to equity traders.

It should be noted that the prices of Gold and Crude Oil also remain firmer during the overall cautiously optimistic markets.

Moving on, downbeat prints of the recent Eurozone and German statistics highlight today's ECB meeting as they push it towards ending the monetary policy tightening soon even if the bloc’s central bank is expected to announce a 0.25% rate hike on Thursday.

Also downbeat expectations from the scheduled US Q2 GDP and Durable Goods Orders for June allow the market players to remain hopeful.

Also read: S&P500 Futures stay firmer around 4,600, yields edge lower as markets expect sooner end to rate hikes