By Scott Murdoch
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Asian share markets rallied on Thursday and the dollar firmed, even as global investors again sold off the troubled mainland Chinese property sector.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.1%, and is up 4.3% so far this month.
The yield on benchmark reached 4.4902% compared with their U.S. close of 4.508% on Wednesday.
The two-year yield, which rises with traders’ expectations of higher Fed fund rates, touched 4.9277% compared with a U.S. close of 4.936%.
Australian shares were up 0.26%, while stock index rose 1.53%.
Hong Kong’s reversed an early gain and was down 0.25% in the afternoon while China’s bluechip CSI300 Index was 0.1% higher.
China’s troubled property sector is being closely watched on Thursday after most major stocks rallied one day earlier following a Reuters report that Ping An Insurance Group had been asked by the Chinese authorities to take a controlling stake in Country Garden Holdings .
A spokesperson for Ping An said the company had not been approached by the government and denied the Reuters report that cited four sources familiar with the plan.
The Hang Seng Mainland Properties Index shed 3.73% on Thursday and the Hang Seng Properties Index, which covers Hong Kong developers, was down 0.7%.
“I think for equities investors, they are still shying away from Chinese property because there are so many unknowns,” said Jason Lui, BNP Paribas (OTC:)’s Head of APAC Equity & Derivative Strategy.
“It’s difficult to ask investors to go back to pre-property downturn days, fundamentally property is going to play a very different role in Chinese economic development going forward.
“Property needs to stop being a drag on GDP and sentiment so investors can move on to the real growth drivers.”
In early European trades, the pan-region were up 0.1%, German were down 0.05%, were down 0.16% at 7,401.5,
U.S. stock futures, the , were down 0.06% at 4,396.8.
Chinese inflation figures for October published on Thursday showed a 0.1% decline compared to September and a 0.2% fall from one year, according to official statistics.
The dollar dropped 0.03% against the yen to 150.93 . It is moving back towards its high this year of 151.74 on Oct. 31.
The European single currency was up 0.0% on the day at $1.0708, having gained 1.25% in a month, while the , which tracks the greenback against a basket of currencies of other major trading partners, was up at 105.51.
The dollar has rebounded from last week’s sharp sell-off on rising confidence the Fed has ended raising rates. There is less agreement on whether a rate cut is on the horizon with inflation still above the U.S. Federal Reserve’s 2% target.
On Wall Street, the rose 0.10% and the added 0.08%. The fell 0.12%.
The S&P 500 rose for the eighth consecutive day, extending its longest win streak in two years.
The Federal Reserve last week kept the benchmark overnight interest rate in the current 5.25%-5.50% range and the central bank is due to meet again mid next month.
The U.S weekly jobless claims published on Thursday will be closely watched as an indicator of the how the country’s labour market is performing. Economists predict claims will reach 219,000 after coming in at 217,000 last week.
Oil prices slid over 2% on Wednesday to their lowest in more than three months on concerns over waning demand in the U.S. and China.
In Asian trading Thursday, ticked up 0.15% to $75.44 a barrel. rose to $79.68 per barrel.
Gold was slightly lower. was traded at $1948.9332 per ounce. [GOL/]
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