China Stocks Erase Losses As Central Bank Holds Rates; Taiwan Stocks Rise after Elections
Mainland China stocks erased losses from earlier in the session Monday, after the country’s central bank left its medium-term policy loans rate unchanged, while Taiwan stocks rose after voters handed the ruling Democratic Progressive Party a third-straight presidential term.
Mainland China’s CSI 300 index was 0.17% higher after falling about 0.5% at open, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was down 0.15%.
The People’s Bank of China surprised markets and held the rate on some 995 billion yuan ($138.84 billion) worth of one-year medium-term lending facility (MLF) loans, keeping it unchanged at 2.50%
The Taiwan Weighted index rose 0.52% after the ruling Democratic Progressive Party’s Lai Ching-te won the presidential election on Saturday, with more than 40% of the popular vote.
Investors will be closely watching China’s fourth-quarter gross domestic numbers due on Wednesday, while Japan will release inflation figures for December on Friday.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 rose marginally.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 continued its record-breaking run, with the index up 1.13%, while the Topix also touched new highs, gaining 1.25%.
South Korea’s Kospi was trading flat, while the small-cap Kosdaq fell 1.09%.
TICKER | COMPANY | NAME | PRICE | CHANGE | %CHANGE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
.N225 | Nikkei 225 Index | *NIKKEI | 35912.02 | 334.91 | 0.94 |
.HSI | Hang Seng Index | *HSI | 16219.55 | -25.03 | -0.15 |
.AXJO | S&P/ASX 200 | *ASX 200 | 7500.1 | 1.8 | 0.02 |
.SSEC | Shanghai | *SHANGHAI | 2892.28 | 10.3 | 0.36 |
.KS11 | KOSPI Index | *KOSPI | 2521.48 | -3.57 | -0.14 |
.FTFCNBCA | CNBC 100 ASIA IDX | *CNBC 100 | 8748.99 | 37.38 | 0.43 |
U.S. stock and bond markets will be closed on Monday for Martin Luther King Day.
On Friday in the U.S., all three major indexes ended mixed as the fourth-quarter earnings season got under way, with four Big Banks posting downbeat results.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.31%, but the S&P 500 ended the day 0.08% higher and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite closed just above the flatline, gaining 0.02%.
— CNBC’s Pia Singh and Alex Harring contributed to this report