The President of the USA, Donald Trump, announced, among other things, that an agreement had been reached with South Korea on import duties on Korean goods of 15 percent – at the same time as he threatened India with 25 percent duties, and sharply increased the duties against Brazil to 50 percent.
South Korea's Kospi index had fallen by 0.3 percent at lunchtime on Thursday. The Shanghai and Shenzhen composite indexes also pointed downwards, with 0.7 and 0.4 percent respectively. Hong Kong's Hang Seng had fallen by 0.7 percent.
In Tokyo, on the other hand, the outlook was brighter. The Nikkei 225 was up 0.9 percent and the broader Topix index was up 0.7 percent.
At lunchtime, local time, it was also announced that the Japanese key interest rate, as expected, was left unchanged, at 0.5 percent.
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