Buoyant global factory activity data fortifies Asian equities

03 Jan 2012 Evaluate

Finally there was some New Year cheer for the equity markets in Asia on the second trading day of 2012 as sentiments got buttressed by encouraging global manufacturing activity reports. With the markets in US closed for an extended New Year’s holiday, market participants in the Asian region they turned their focus to European markets where stocks rallied overnight on the back of upbeat manufacturing PMI reading in Germany and France. Though the Euro-zone factory data showed fifth straight month of contraction, however, the reading improved in December from November, alleviating worries over recession in the single currency zone.

Meanwhile, sentiments in the region also got a boost from reports that the manufacturing activity in the world’s second largest economy China came better than market-wide expectations. Though the Chinese markets remained closed for the day, the markets in Hong Kong spurted over two percent on the unexpectedly encouraging Chinese factory PMI numbers. The benchmark in South Korea too jumped by over two and half a percent being the top gainer in the space on the back of buoyant global manufacturing activity reports, which eased fears of global economic downturn.

Hang Seng jumped 393.10 points or 2.13% to 18,827.49, Jakarta Composite climbed 31.16 points or 0.82% to 3,840.30, Straits Times surged 32.51 points or 1.23% to 2,678.86, Seoul Composite soared 46.36 points or 2.54% to 1,872.73 and Taiwan Weighted garnered 117.34 points or 1.69% to 7,069.55.

Stock markets in China and Japan remained shut for extended New Year’s holiday.

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