Asian stock markets close with mixed performance on Thursday

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - Major stock markets in Asia closed mostly with gains on Thursday following the US Federal Reserve's minutes.

The US Federal Reserve's minutes from its Sept. 21-22 meeting showed on Wednesday that it could start tapering -- the process of reducing its $120 billion in monthly asset purchases -- as early as mid-November.

The central bank, however, left the door open to begin tapering in mid-December, which would provide markets an additional month of liquidity.

According to the data released on Wednesday in the US, the consumer price index (CPI) rose 5.4% year-on-year, its highest level in 13 years.

The Asia Dow, which includes blue-chip companies in the region, climbed 22.4 points, or 0.58%, to 3,896 at 0930GMT.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 surged by 410.7 points, or 1.46%, to 28,550 on Thursday.

The Singapore index rose 11.30 points, or by 0.36%, to 3,167, and the Indian Sensex benchmark gained 525.2, or 0.86%, to 61,262.

The Hang Seng, the benchmark for blue-chip stocks trading on the Hong Kong stock exchange, slipped by 362.5 points, or 1.43%, to 24,962.

China's Shanghai stock exchange was also in negative territory, falling by 3.48 points, or 0.10%, to 3,558 points, following the inflation figure released on Thursday.

China’s CPI rose 0.7% year-on-year in September, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday. The country's producer price index jumped at its fastest pace ever with 10.7% during the same period.