Most Asian stock market indices dropped today. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index shed almost 1.3%, Singapore’s Straits Times Index lost 0.8%, South Korea’s Kospi index fell over half a per cent, and Japan’s Nikkei 225 slipped half a per cent. Conversely, China’s Shanghai Composite Index rose over 0.1%. Meanwhile, the Bank of Korea kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 2.5% today. Five of the seven members of the central bank’s Monetary Policy Board voted to keep the rate unchanged, while two dissenting members voted for a hike. The central bank revised up this year’s inflation estimate to 2.7% from the 2.2% projected before the West Asia conflict started, factoring in the spillovers from rising oil prices. It raised this year’s growth forecast to 2.6%, significantly higher than the February projection of 2%.
Major European indices were trading with losses today. London’s FTSE 100 was trading more than 1.1% down, Germany’s DAX dropped over 0.7%, and France’s CAC 40 slipped over 0.4% when reports last came in.
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