Asian shares end Tuesday mixed

By Aysu Bicer

ANKARA (AA) – Asian stocks ended mixed on Tuesday amid rising tensions in the Russia-Ukraine war and investors’ concern over supply chain disruptions due to rising COVID-19 cases in China, and a possible rate hike of the Federal Reserve.

Just after the lockdown of China's Shanghai city, dozens of cases were reported in Beijing, raising fears that it could face a similar situation to Shanghai. This new development raised the risk perception of investors, who are already concerned about the negative effects of the Fed's possible hawkish monetary policy on economic growth.

The Fed is expected to increase interest rates by 50 basis points in May, July, and September, and by 75 basis points in June.

Despite the People's Bank of China's (PBoC) announcement that it would increase its support for the real economy and small companies while keeping liquidity reasonably abundant, the PBoC was unable to contribute adequately to the recovery of risk appetite among investors who did not see concrete steps.

On the other hand, the Bank of Japan (BoJ) has announced that it will buy unlimited 10-year government bonds with a fixed interest rate of 0.25%.

With these developments, the Asia Dow, which includes blue-chip companies in the region, slightly down 0.70 points, or 0.02%, to settle at 3,483 points.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 stock exchange rose 109.33 points, or 0.41%, to 26.700.

The Hang Seng, the benchmark for blue-chip stocks trading on the Hong Kong stock exchange, also posted an increase of 65.37 points, or 0.33%, to 19,934.

China's Shanghai Stock Exchange lost 42.09 points, or 1.44%, to close at 2,886 points.

The Indian Sensex benchmark was up 800 points, or 1.43%, to end the day at 57,390 points, while the Singapore index fell 17.54 points, or 0.53%, to 3,322.​​​​​​​