Asia-Pacific markets mostly rose Monday, as investors assessed China’s weekend press briefing and awaited a slew of economic data this week from the region.
Mainland China’s CSI 300 rose 1.9% to close at 3,691.3, following a choppy trading session. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index slipped 0.9% as of its final hour of trade.
Both indexes swung between gains and losses in the intraday trading, underscoring investors’ mixed reaction to China’s stimulus promises.
The Hang Seng Mainland Properties Index gained 2.5%, while the Hang Seng Tech index dropped 1.7%.
China’s Minister of Finance Lan Fo’an in a highly anticipated press briefing on Saturday hinted at more debt issuance amid efforts to shore up the economy, stating the government had a “rather large” space to increase deficit.
China’s deflation worries deepened in September with consumer prices rising at their slowest pace in three months at 0.4% from a year earlier, while the producer price index fell at the fastest pace in six months, down 2.8%. Both metrics missed expectations of economists polled by Reuters, who estimated CPI to rise 0.6% and PPI to decline 2.5%.
China is set to release its trade data for September on Monday, with exports expected to rise 6%, a slower growth than 8.7% in August, while imports are estimated to grow 0.9%, compared to 0.5% in August.
China watchers also look ahead to the week with a busy set of economic data, including China’s third-quarter GDP, September industrial output growth, retail sales and unemployment rate.
Japan’s market was closed for a holiday.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.47% to end at 8,252.8.
Taiwan markets edged 0.32% higher to settle at 22,975.29.
South Korea’s blue-chip index Kospi gained over 1% to finish at 2,623.29 while the small-cap Kosdaq index ended nearly flat at 770.26.
Stateside, stock futures were little changed in overnight trading Sunday as investors waited to assess an upcoming batch of key corporate earnings.
Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average traded near the flatline. The S&P 500 index futures were flat, while Nasdaq-100 futures dipped 0.1%.
Last week, the three major indexes registered a fifth straight week of gains, with the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average hitting fresh all-time highs and closed at records on Friday.
