Tokyo — Asian shares scaled two-year highs on Thursday while the dollar and US bond yields slipped after the US Federal Reserve signalled a cautious approach to future rate increases and the reduction of its $4.5-trillion of bond holdings. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan advanced 0.7%, hitting its highest level since June 2015, and bringing its gains so far in 2017 to about 17%. The gains were led by South Korean shares, which rose 1.0% to record highs. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.8% to its highest level since July 2015 while Taiwanese shares hit 17-year highs. In Japan, Nikkei gained 0.4%. Mainland Chinese shares, which were briefly unsettled by Moody’s downgrade of its rating on China on Wednesday, bounced back 0.3%. "Credit downgrade wasn’t a surprise after all, given the delay in structural reforms such as liberalisation of capital moves. The Chinese economy looks set to grow more than 6%, so there’s no reason to be that pessimistic either," said Sh...
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