Asian stock markets were trading mixed on Thursday (28 July), with the Shanghai Composite Index down 0.39% at 2,980.39 as of 5.27am GMT, following little change on Wall Street overnight amid the US Federal Reserve's decision to keep interest rates unchanged.

At the monetary policy meeting, the US central bank said it would not change interest rates for now but would keep the door open for an increase later in the year. It said this could be as early as September following improvement in the economy, according to a news report.

Asian markets trade mixed ahead of the US Fed’s interest rate decision later in the day
Asian stock markets traded mixed on 28 July 2016 Reuters
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Now, investors in the region are looking forward to the conclusion of the Bank of Japan's (BOJ) two-day policy meeting that began on Thursday (28 July). "The best-case scenario for the market is that the BOJ decides to increase government debt purchases without cutting interest rates further into negative territory. But the BOJ can't save face if it does not cut rates into negative territory after it introduced the negative interest rate policy (in January), so we need to brace for such possibility, too," Hikaru Sato, a senior technical analyst at Daiwa Securities, was quoted as saying by Reuters.

Indices in the rest of Asia traded as follows on 28 July at 5.34am GMT:

Country

Index

Price

Up/Down

%Change

Hong Kong

Hang Seng Index

22,150.91

Down

0.31%

Japan

Nikkei 225

16,498.55

Down

1%

South Korea

KOSPI

2,017.34

Down

0.38%

India

CNX Nifty

8,644.20

Up

0.33%

Australia

S&P/ASX 200

5,557.20

Up

0.32%

Overnight (27 July), the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 18,472.17, down 0.01%, while the FTSE 100 closed at 6,750.43, up 0.39%.

Among commodities, oil prices were trading higher. While WTI crude oil was trading higher by 0.31% at $42.05 (£31.90; €38) a barrel, Brent crude was trading 0.35% higher at $43.62 a barrel as of 5.40am GMT.