Receive free Asia-Pacific equities updates
We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest Asia-Pacific equities news every morning.
European shares and US stock futures followed Asian markets higher on Monday, as traders assessed stimulus measures from Beijing and looked ahead to jobs data for the world’s biggest economy.
The regional Stoxx Europe 600 gauge was up 0.7 per cent by lunchtime in London, following two successive down days. Markets in the UK were closed for a public holiday.
Europe’s technology stocks led gains across the board, with the Stoxx 600 Technology index up 1.3 per cent. Meanwhile, futures contracts tracking Wall Street’s S&P 500 gauge and those following the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 were up 0.4 and 0.6 per cent respectively before the New York opening bell.
Those moves came after Beijing cut a levy on share trading for the first time since the 2008 financial crisis. China’s Ministry of Finance introduced additional measures to support the country’s struggling market on Sunday, saying it would halve the stamp duty on stock trading in order to boost investor confidence.
The announcement marks the latest in a string of attempts by China’s top officials to provide stimulus to the world’s second-largest economy, which has struggled to regain momentum after three years of severe pandemic restrictions.
The country’s benchmark CSI 300 index of Shanghai- and Shenzhen-listed stocks closed 1.2 per cent higher, having climbed as much as 5.5 per cent earlier in the session. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index finished 1 per cent higher.
European luxury goods stocks, which are closely linked to China’s consumer spending expectations, also advanced, with heavyweights Hermès and LVMH both gaining 1 per cent.
Traders were also on Monday looking ahead to US labour market data due at the end of the week, which will be scrutinised for clues about the future path of interest rate rises.
Economists polled by Reuters are predicting that non-farm payrolls grew by 170,000 in August, compared with 187,000 in July.
Federal Reserve chair Jay Powell said last Friday at the Jackson Hole economic conference that inflation “remains too high”, raising the prospect of more interest rate rises in the US if price pressures persist.
The US central bank last raised the benchmark federal funds rate to a 22-year high in July, leaving the door open for additional tightening if economic data continued to signal persistent price pressures.
The dollar, which tends to rise when investors anticipate higher rates, advanced 0.1 per cent against a basket of six peer currencies.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note was down 0.02 percentage points on Monday at 4.22 per cent, while the policy-sensitive two-year yield was up 0.02 percentage points at 5.08 per cent. Bond yields rise as their prices fall.
Trading volumes are often lighter in late August, compounded on Monday by the UK bank holiday.
Elsewhere in Asian markets, Japan’s Topix index rose 1.5 per cent and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.6 per cent.
Read the full article here
