People watch the first sunrise of the new year from a pedestrian bridge overlooking the cityscape of Seoul on January 1, 2024.
Jung Yong-jae | AFP | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific markets were mostly higher on Thursday as investors digested business activity data from Australia and Japan and awaited the release of India's PMI.
As expected, the Bank of Korea also kept its policy rate unchanged at 3.5%. In a statement, the bank said South Korea's inflation continues to trend downward, but noted the need to monitor real estate prices and household debt.
This came after the Fed released the minutes of its July meeting, a summary of which revealed that some participants had argued for interest rates to be eased at the July meeting instead of in September.
But a “majority” of participants at the July 30-31 meeting “expressed the view that if the data continue to emerge as expected, it would likely be appropriate to ease policy at the next meeting,” the summary said.
Japan's Nikkei stock average rose 0.68% to close at 38,211.01, while the Tokyo Stock Price Index rose 0.25% to close at 2,671.4. Japanese business activity expanded at a faster pace in August, with the composite purchasing managers' index rising to 53.0 from 52.5 in July.
The country's manufacturing sector returned to growth and its services sector expanded at a faster pace.
South Korea's KOSPI rose 0.24% to 2,707.67, while the small-cap KOSDAQ fell 0.82% to close at 773.47.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index was up 1.33% in the final hour of trading, while mainland China's CSI 300 was down 0.26% to close at 3,313.14. At this level, the CSI is just four points away from its six-month low.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index rose 0.21 percent to 8,027. The country's composite purchasing managers' index rose to 51.4 in August from 49.9 in the previous month, the highest in three months, supported by rising services activity, according to Judo Bank.
In the US, all three major indicators rose following the release of the Fed minutes, raising hopes of lower interest rates in the near future.
The S&P 500 rose 0.42%, bringing the index to within 1% of its all-time high, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index added 0.57% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.14%.
—CNBC's Alex Harring and Samantha Sabin contributed to this report.
