Asian markets settled mostly higher on Monday tracking strong gains in Wall Street last Friday, despite concerns about elevated inflationary pressures and aggressive monetary policy tightening. Hong Kong shares rose after reports that Shanghai was relaxing some of its lockdown restrictions. Chinese central bank PBoC kept the interest rate of the one-year medium-term lending facility unchanged at 2.85%, while injecting 100 billion yuan of liquidity into the banking system via the MLF. PBOC also maintained the interest rate of the seven-day reverse repurchase agreement at 2.1% while injecting CNY10 billion of funds via the monetary tool, data showed. Further, Japanese shares gained as weaker yen offered some support to exporters. However, Chinese shares slipped after retail sales and industrial production data for April came in far worse than expected. Meanwhile, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore markets were closed for Vesak Day holiday.
Asian Indices | Last Trade | Change in Points | Change in % |
Shanghai Composite | 3,073.75 | -10.53 | -0.34 |
Hang Seng | 19,950.21 | 51.44 | 0.26 |
Jakarta Composite | - | - | - |
KLSE Composite | - | - | - |
Nikkei 225 | 26,547.05 | 119.40 | 0.45 |
Straits Times | - | - | - |
KOSPI Composite | 2,596.58 | -7.66 | -0.29 |
Taiwan Weighted | 15,901.04 | 68.50 | 0.43 |