The Shanghai Composite Index jumped 2.34% and the Shenzhen Composite Index climbed 1.92%. Tokyo is weighed down by the news of a worsening recession in Japan.
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Asian stock markets ended in scattered order on Monday, with Chinese places boosted by the announcement of stimulus measures from the country’s central bank, while Tokyo closed slightly lower after the announcement of a historic fall in Japanese GDP.
In mainland China and Hong Kong, the stock markets reacted to news of the injection of more than $ 100 billion into the markets on Monday by the Chinese central bank, to support the country’s financial institutions.
The Shanghai Composite Index jumped 2.34% to 3,438.80 points and the Shenzhen Composite Index climbed 1.92% to 2,287.34 points.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index also finished in the green, gaining 0.65% to 25,347.34 points.
Investors were also monitoring Sino-US relations and the lack of progress on a new economic stimulus package in the United States.
In Tokyo, the session was dominated by profit taking, as the historic fall in Japanese GDP in the second quarter (-7.8%) under the impact of COVID-19 was announced just before the opening.
The Nikkei star index lost 0.83% to 23,096.75 points, while the expanded Topix index fell 0.84% to 1609.82 points.
“Investors have chosen to sell taking advantage of recent market gains,” commented Toshikazu Horiuchi, broker at IwaiCosmo Securities.
The GDP announced Monday morning “was well within the expected range”, but the figure was also a new confirmation of the impact of the new coronavirus pandemic on the Japanese economy, he estimated with AFP .
If this contraction in wealth over a quarter is the strongest since comparable data was put in place in 1980, Japan has however been less severely affected by the coronavirus than other industrialized countries, the GDP of the euro area for example having fallen by 12.1% in the second quarter.
On the side of values
SOFTBANK GROUP DOWN: The title of Japanese new technology juggernaut SoftBank Group lost 1.40% to 6,237 yen during the session.
On the currency and oil side
The yen rallied slightly against the dollar, with a dollar valued at 106.45 yen around 0850 GMT, against 106.60 yen on Friday at 2100 GMT.
The European currency also fell against the yen, a euro worth 125.99 yen against 126.23 yen at the end of last week.
The greenback was stable against the euro, with a euro trading for $ 1.1835 against $ 1.1842 on Friday at 9:00 p.m. GMT.
Oil prices were in the green after falling at the end of last week, weighed down by the gloomy outlook from the International Energy Agency (IEA) on global oil demand for 2020 and 2021.
Around 08:50 GMT, the price of a barrel of US crude WTI rose 0.38% to 42.17 dollars and that of a barrel of Brent from the North Sea rose 0.27% to 44.92 dollars.
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