Asian stocks open on mixed performance

Asian stocks opened the third session of the week on mixed performance, with the Japanese and the Chinese stocks falling in addition to Hong Kong's Hang Seng and South Korea's Kospi, while the Australian and New Zealand stocks rose on Wednesday, following data releases on China's inflation for the past month and on the threshold of an inflation data release for the US.

We have followed the Chinese economy reveal its inflation data, which showed a variance of inflationary pressures with the annual reading of the consumer price index showing growth accelerating to 2.7% in line with expectations compared to 2.5% in the previous annual reading for April, while the annual reading of the PPI showed that growth has slowed down to 0.6% which is also consistent with expectations versus 0.6% in the previous annual reading for April.

Last month China's inflation data showed the biggest rise in the consumer price index in 15 months, which could limit the chances that the central bank will ease monetary policy as inflationary pressures intensify, which has slowed the growth of the producer price index, the preliminary indicator of inflationary pressures may also later reflect the slowing growth of inflation in China.

In another context, Hong Kong's protests over China's controversial extradition bill have also pushed Hang Seng index lower. Investors are now looking for the release of inflation data for the United States, which may be reflected in the decisions and directions of the monetary policy makers at the Fed during Federal Open Market Committee meeting later in the week.

Japanese stock indices saw a variation in performance during today's trading session, with the broader Topix index falling by 0.09% to lose 1.38 points down to 1,559.94, while the main Nikkei 225 index rose 0.06% to win 13.22 points, up to the level of 21,217.50.

As for the Chinese stock indices, CSI 300 index fell by 0.44% to lose 16.48 points to 3,702.80, the Shanghai index fell 0.21% to lose 6.16 points to 2,919.56.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index shed 1.20% (334.23 points) to 27,455.11. South Korea's Kospi Index fell 0.15%, shedding 3.20 points to 2,108.61.

To the New Zealand NZX 50 index, which rose 0.07% (6.60 points) to 10,145.75. On the other hand, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index gained 0.20% (13.01 points) to reach 6,559.30.