China’s benchmark index slipped to its lowest in five weeks on Monday, after a trading program allowing more foreign investment into mainland China was delayed, while shares in Japan edged higher as the dollar held on to most of the gains it made last week.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 gathered 97.08 points, or 0.6%, to 15,388.72, extending its gains from last week, when it added 5.2% to snap a four-week losing streak.
The U.S. dollar was changing hands at 107.89 yen as of the close of trading in Asia, slightly lower than ¥108.16 on Friday, but well above the recent bottom of ¥105.93 on Oct. 15.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index plummeted 158.97 points, or 0.7%, to 23,143.23, after the stock exchange said Sunday that a stock-trading connection with Shanghai still hadn’t received regulatory approval.
The scheme, originally expected to launch before the end of October, grants international investors access to China’s domestic stock market while at the same time allowing investors in China to buy stocks in Hong Kong. It marks a major opening up of China’s stock exchange where foreign money managers require a special license to buy stocks.
Investors in Hong Kong were also reacting to the latest in the city’s pro-democracy protests, which appear to be a possible reason why the trading program has been delayed. Over the weekend, leaders of the movement canceled a vote that was supposed to galvanize further support for their efforts, a sign of the challenges they face uniting disparate groups.
Markets in Australia reached a level last reached in mid-September, as a recovery in financial stocks ahead of earnings season for the big banks helped a broad push higher.
Shares of Angang Steel Co. were up 1.0% in Hong Kong after the firm, which makes steel products, said net profit in the third quarter surged over fivefold from a year earlier, mainly due to cheaper prices for raw materials and fuel.
CHINA
Shanghai’s CSI 300 index faded 21.87 points, or 0.9%, to 2,368.83.
Shares in China Vanke Co. in Shanghai dropped 3.4%, after the firm posted a less than 1% increase in revenue compared with a year earlier, the latest indication of the severity of the downturn in China’s property market. The property developer also warned of further pain in the broader market amid a glut of homes in many Chinese cities.
In other markets;
Markets in New Zealand were shuttered for holiday
Singapore’s Straits Times Index eked up 3.56 points, or 0.1%, to 3,226.11
The Taiex index in Taiwan descended 18.23 points, or 0.2%, to 8,627.78
Korea’s Kospi index moved up 6.28 points, or 0.3%, to 1,931.97
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 46.71 points, or 0.9%, to 5,458.95
