Market update: Markets on tenterhooks ahead of tapering news from the US – 18.09.2013

Source: Henderson Global Investors

Global stockmarkets saw mixed results yesterday, as investor focus shifted to the end of the US Federal Reserve’s (Fed) two-day Open Market Committee meeting later today. In the US, the Dow Jones closed at 15,529 (a rise of 0.2%), while the S&P 500 reached 1,704 – a rise of 0.4% (16.7% over 12 months) and just shy of the record high of 1,709 reached on 2 August this year. US investors have remained in bullish mood, with the Fed expected to reveal plans for a moderate (and market friendly) scaling back of its massive $85bn-a-month economic stimulus programme.

Asian investors chose a more cautious path, with the region’s leading indexes – with the exception of Japan’s Nikkei 225 – mixed overnight as trading slackened ahead of the Fed’s tapering announcement. China’s Shanghai Composite Index closed up 0.3%, recouping some of the losses from the previous day’s 2.1% decline, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng remained steady. Japan’s Nikkei 225, in contrast, closed up 1.4%, a rise of 193.69 points, as investors responded positively to apparent resilience in US indices.

European equities started the day in a positive but subdued fashion. At the time of writing, the FTSE Eurofirst 300 and FTSE 100 were up 0.2% and 0.1% respectively.