Asian markets trade mixed as US Fed keeps interest rates unchanged

While Asian stock market indices traded mixed on Thursday (3 November), the Shanghai Composite was up 0.89% at 3,130.26 as of 6.37am GMT. This followed a weak Wall Street close overnight after the US Federal Reserve hinted at increasing interest rates in December.

On Wednesday, the US central bank held its interest rates steady at its November meeting. However, it said that the case for increasing these rates was growing stronger. "The Federal Reserve have effectively given the green light to a December rate hike, that is as long as we don't see a major disruptive event playing out between now and 14 December," Chris Weston, chief market strategist at spreadbetter IG said.

Meanwhile, in Asia, China reported positive growth in its services sector on Thursday. The Caixin China services PMI came in at 52.4 for the month of October. While this not only indicated an expansion in the sector, it also marked the fastest pace of growth in four months. This is said to have led the Shanghai Composite and other regional indices higher.

However, according to analysts, this rebound in some of the Asian indices was temporary. They said investors continued to be concerned about the US elections and oil prices. "Asia markets [saw] a technical rebound, but it not a strong one, given that political uncertainty in the U.S. and the plunge in crude oil prices are two bearish factors that will continue to weigh on market sentiment. This technical rebound might not sustain for long," Margaret Yang, market analyst at CMC Markets was quoted as saying by CNBC.

Indices in the region were trading as follows at 6.53am GMT:

Overnight (2 November), the FTSE 100 closed 1.04% lower at 6,845.42, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed lower by 0.43% at 17,959.64.

Among commodities, oil pared some losses after sliding on Wednesday. While WTI crude oil was trading higher by 0.95% at $45.77 (£37.10) a barrel, Brent crude was 1.22% higher at $47.43 a barrel as of 7.01am GMT.