By Tuba Sahin
ANKARA (AA) – Most major Asian stock exchanges closed on Friday in negative territory as the Federal Reserve chair signaled aggressive move to tame inflation.
A half-point rate hike will be on the table for the May meeting to get inflation down to the 2% goal, Jerome Powell said at an International Monetary Fund panel on Thursday.
The Asia Dow, which includes blue-chip companies in the region, dove over 50 points, or 1.45%, to 3,428 at 1023GMT.
Tokyo's Nikkei 225 stock exchange lost 447.8 points, or 1.63%, to close the week at 27,105.
On the other hand, China's Shanghai Stock Exchange rose 7.1 points, or 0.23%, to 3,087 on Friday,
Chinese Central Bank Governor Yi Gang said on Friday that China, the world's second-largest economy, is "not immune to external shocks", as the spread of COVID-19 has put more downward pressure on the domestic economy.
The country is under a three-week lockdown due to recent high case numbers.
The Hang Seng, the benchmark for blue-chip stocks trading on the Hong Kong stock exchange, went down 43.7 points, or 0.21%, to close at 20,638.
India's Sensex benchmark decreased 714.5 points or 1.23% to 57,197, whereas the Singapore index increased 12.6 points, or 0.38%, for a daily ending of 3,361.