A pedestrian holding her mobile phone walks past an electronic board showing the stock market indices of various countries outside a brokerage in Tokyo. Japan’s Nikkei share average surged 3.3% yesterday.
AFP
Asian markets rallied yesterday following a rise in New York at the end of last week, with Tokyo surging almost four per cent thanks also to a weaker yen.
But while the gains come as some relief after the ups and downs of last week, traders are nervously watching the release of Chinese economic growth data later in the week for fear of another weak figure.
Tokyo, which ended on Friday at a five-month low, raced 3.98% higher in the biggest one-day points gain since June 2013. It added 578.72 points to finish at 15,111.23.
Sydney jumped 0.90%, or 47.7 points, to 5,319.4 and Seoul added 1.55%, or 29.40 points, to 1,930.06.
Shanghai finished 0.66% higher, adding 15.54 points, to 2,356.73, and Hong Kong put on 0.20%, or 47.05 points, to end at 23,070.26. There was also support from reports at the weekend that China’s central bank plans to inject 200bn yuan ($32.6bn) into the banking system after a recent spate of monetary easing failed to kickstart the Asian economic giant. On foreign exchange markets the dollar climbed to 107.10 yen, compared with 106.78 yen in New York and well up from the 106.22 yen earlier Friday in Asia.
The euro fetched 136.66 yen against 136.28 yen in US trade, while it was at $1.2768 compared with $1.2759.
In other markets, Bangkok closed down 0.13%, or 2.04 points, to 1,526.67; Jakarta rose 0.23%, or 11.59 points, to close at 5,040.53; Kuala Lumpur closed 0.82% higher, or 14.83 points, to end at 1,803.14, Manila closed 0.78% higher, or 54.31 points, higher at 7,057.53; Taipei advanced 1.77%, or 150.26 points, to 8,663.14; Singapore closed 0.42%, or 13.32 points, higher at 3,181.05 and Wellington rose 0.99%, or 50.94 points, to 5,197.89.
