Stock indices of the Asia-Pacific region (APR) ended the session with multidirectional changes.

Activity of trades remains lower than usual level, as exchanges of China and Hong Kong are closed in connection with celebration of New Year on lunar calendar, notes MarketWatch. Investors evaluated reporting of large companies for the past quarter and statdata from Australia.

A negative factor for Asian shares was the weak reporting of IT giant Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), which the night before reported revenue growth in the last fiscal quarter by only 2%, weaker than market expectations, and a 12% decline in net income.

Meanwhile, consumer prices in Australia rose 8.4% year-on-year in December after climbing 7.3% in November. Inflation was well above the forecast of 7.6%.

Such a sharp acceleration in inflation is largely due to rising prices for real estate (in particular, new buildings jumped in price by 16%) and motor fuel (10.8% after an increase of 8.4% in November), as well as recreation and cultural activities (14.4% vs. 5.8%).

Inflation was 7.8% in the fourth quarter compared to 7.3% a quarter earlier, a rate that renewed a record since 1990.

The jump in inflation raises the likelihood of another key interest rate hike by the Australian central bank by another 25 basis points in February, IG market analyst Yip Jun Rong said.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 index was down 0.3 percent.

Australia’s banking sector mostly rose on the prospect of higher interest rates: shares of Commonwealth Bank rose by 0.7%, Macquarie Group – by 0.4%.

Meanwhile, the price of securities of leading mining companies BHP Group and Fortescue Metals fell by 1% and 0.1% respectively, Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) – by 0.7%. Technology sector stocks also fell, including Seek (-3%), Xero (-2.8%) and Block Inc (-2.7%).

The value of the Japanese index Nikkei 225 increased by 0.35%, rising for the fourth consecutive session.

The leader of growth among the index components were the shares of Dai Nippon Printing, which jumped by 14.8%. Suzuki Motor Corp. (TYO:7269) and Nippon Steel rose 5.6% and 4.5%, respectively.

Nidec Corp.’s capitalization fell 5.4% after the electric motor maker sharply cut its full-year operating profit forecast due to shrinking demand and a slow recovery in the global auto industry.

South Korea’s Kospi index rose 1.4 percent.

The market value of Samsung Electronics Co. (KS:005930), one of the world’s largest chip makers, rose 2.6%, while carmaker Hyundai Motor (KS:005380) gained 0.7%.
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