Chinese stocks closed at a seven-year high on Monday, after China unveiled more details of its “New Silk Road” plan to boost trade and economic relations with Eurasia and Africa.
Hints of further monetary easing in comments from China’s central-bank governor also helped push up stocks.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 index regained 125.77 points, or 0.7%, to 19,411.40
The yen weakened a little against the U.S. dollar to ¥119.77, compared to ¥119.44 at the end of the previous stock session.
The Hang Seng Index zoomed 368.92 points, or 1.5%, to 24,855.12, capping its biggest daily percentage gain since late January.
Railway and construction shares surged in Hong Kong, as China Railway Group Ltd. soared 19.6%, and China Railway Construction Corp. jumped 18.7%.
The tech sector also rallied across the board, as online game developer NetDragon Websoft Inc. surged 15.4%, software developer Kingsoft Corp. gained 12%, and Hang Seng Index heavyweight Tencent Holdings Ltd. advanced 2%.
In earnings news, China Eastern Airlines Corp. was 16.5% higher after recording a 45% jump in net profit for last year, boosted by strong air-traffic growth and lower fuel costs.
Also supporting Hong Kong markets were news that China’s top securities regulator allowed mutual funds in the mainland to directly buy Hong Kong shares via the Hong Kong-Shanghai Stock Connect scheme.
Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd., the city’s sole bourse operator, advanced 7.9%.
CHINA
The Shanghai CSI 300 hiked 116.48 points, or 2.9%, to 4,088.18
Over the weekend, Chinese President Xi Jinping said he expected the “One Belt, One Road” initiative, part of the wider Silk Road trade-promotion plan to better link regional infrastructures, to boost annual trade between China and the economies involved to more than $2.5 trillion U.S.
The plan is slated to include investment in railways, roads, power grids, oil and gas pipelines, ports and other such facilities, and this helped lift the related stocks.
Also helping with investor sentiment were remarks by People’s Bank of China governor Zhou Xiaochuan on Sunday that the central bank still had “more room” to cope with the economic slowdown via monetary policies.
In other markets
The Taiex index in Taiwan surged 18.15 points, or 0.2%, to 9,521.87
In Singapore, the Straits Times Index gained 4.16 points, or 0.1%, to 3,454.26
The Kospi index in Korea recovered 10.24 points, or 0.5%, to 2,030.04
In New Zealand, the NZX 50 tailed off 32.96 points, or 0.6%, to 5,821.29
The S&P/ASX index slumped 73.85 points, or 1.3%, to 5,846.09
