Asian stock markets started the new trading week inconsistently. As Shanghai headed upward, Hong Kong and Tokyo headed south. Epidemic developments in Europe have brought nervousness to the markets.
The Chinese sector and the shares of companies that build infrastructure mainly helped Chinese stocks to rise. The main index of the Shanghai Stock Exchange strengthened by less than one percent, the CSI300 index, which includes blue chips, strengthened by only 0.7 percent. The Chinese central bank’s decision to leave key interest rates unchanged brought optimism to Chinese markets. Thus, the tension caused by fears of tightening monetary policy screws has partly disappeared.
In contrast, shares in Hong Kong fell 0.4 percent as measured by the Hang Seng index. A sub-index that includes only Chinese companies, but gained two-tenths of a percent. The Hong Kong Stock Exchange weakened mainly due to the unfavorable development of the epidemic situation in Europe, where a number of countries were forced to extend lockdowns or tighten measures. The Tokyo Stock Exchange, which lost more than two percent, also headed down. The main culprit here was the fire that engulfed the factory of one of the leading manufacturers of microchips, which is already in short supply on the global market.
