Asian markets make mostly a positive start

The Asian markets have mostly made a positive start, with Chinese and Hong Kong markets surging by over a percent on speculation that China will add to measures to boost growth after IMF cut its global economic growth forecasts. There were also some reports that China may introduce policies to relax limits on brokerages’ operations and investment methods and the government will also support the development of brokerages’ cross-border operations and encourage listings. China’s growth estimate was cut by 0.2 percentage point each year to 7.8 percent in 2012 and 8.2 percent in 2013 by IMF. However, the Japanese market declined after an extended weekend, as a report showed growth of Japan’s current account surplus slowed in August.

Shanghai Composite was up by 41.65 points or 2.01% to 2,116.07, Hang Seng was higher by 229.12 points or 1.10% to 21,053.68, Jakarta Composite was up by 15.32 points or 0.36% to 4,283.62, KLSE Composite was marginally up by 1.77 points or 0.11% to 1,661.99, Straits Times gained 3.41 points or 0.10% to 3,079.08, Kospi Composite was up by 6.64 points or 0.33% to 1,987.82 and Taiwan Weighted added 1.11 points or 0.02% to 7,616.16.

Nikkei 225 was the lone loser, down by 31.99 points or 0.36% to 8,831.31.