Mainland China indexes surge; Nikkei gains nearly 2%
Asian markets rose in early trading Monday after encouraging economic news from China.
China’s official purchasing managers index, released Sunday, showed that the country’s manufacturing sector rebounded strongly in March, to a six-month high of 50.5, from 49.2 in February. Later, the private Caixin China manufacturing purchasing managers index rose to 50.8 in March from 49.9 in February, expanding for the first time in four months. The readings helped ease worries that the world’s second-largest economy was significantly slowing down.
The Shanghai Composite SHCOMP, +2.28% surged 2.3%, and the smaller-cap Shenzhen Composite 399106, +3.08% soared 3% on the news. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index HSI, +1.58% rose 1.5%, and Japan’s Nikkei NIK, +1.43% was up 1.9%. South Korea’s Kospi SEU, +1.32% advanced 1.2% Benchmark indexes in Taiwan Y9999, +0.01% and Singapore STI, +0.98% rose as well, though stocks in Indonesia JAKIDX, -0.19% declined. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 XJO, +0.59% gained 0.7%.
Among individual stocks, Apple Inc. AAPL, +0.65% supplier Japan Display 6740, +10.14% skyrocketed after announcing it would seek nearly $1 billion in new financing. SoftBank 9984, +1.44% and Toyota 7203, +2.45% also advanced. Sunny Optical 2382, +4.53% and Galaxy Entertainment 0027, +5.33% rose in Hong Kong, and Samsung 005930, +1.01% and SK Hynix 000660, +3.10% gained in Korea. Beach Energy BPT, +1.46% and Rio Tinto RIO, +1.65% advanced in Australia.