Asian Equities Mixed, BoJ's Ueda Speaks, RBNZ Leave Rates On Hold

Regional Asian equities have opened mixed on Wednesday, with Japanese equities the worst in the region. Investors are cautious as we await key US inflation data later today. The RBNZ rate decision is the only major economic data point out in the region today, with the central bank keeping rate on hold as widely expected, there has been little in the way of a reaction to the announcement.

• Japan equities opened lower on Wednesday with investors expected to take a wait-and-see stance ahead of the release of US inflation data. BoJ Governor Kazuo Ueda made comments Tuesday that suggested he is keeping his options open for a further paring back of monetary easing, he also spoke earlier this morning where he mentioned the BoJ owns about 7% of the entire Japanese stock market and that deciding the fate of ETF holdings will be a difficult task while also noting a potential increase in bond buying if yields rise sharply and is cautious about directly responding to FX movements but suggests a potential policy shift if FX movements risk pushing inflation above expectations. While Microsoft will invest $2.9 billion over the next two years to boost its hyperscale cloud computing and artificial intelligence infrastructure in Japan, marking its biggest investment in the country. The Nikkei 225 index dropped 0.34% to 39,639.29 while the broader Topix index slipped 0.31%, to 2,746.08.
• South Korean equity markets are closed today.
• Taiwanese equities saw a $500 inflow from foreign investors on Tuesday, while equities surged, as trading gets underway on Wednesday, we have opened a touch higher up 0.20%. Late on Tuesday CPI released which missed estimates, the March print came in at 2.14% vs 2.50% show a decent drop from the Feb where CPI was 3.08%.
• Australian equities have opened higher with the ASX 200 up 0.50% marking the third day of gains. Miners, Health care and Real Estate names are the top performing sectors with Financials and Tech stocks the worst sectors.
• Elsewhere in SEA, New Zealand equities are up 0.37% with little reaction to the RBNZ decision to keep rates on hold, while Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysian equity markets are closed today.