Asian Markets Showed Gains, Hang Seng Index and Kospi Leading The Charts
Sophia Cruz•Thursday, April 18, 2024•1 min read
In today’s trading session, the Asian stock market mostly showed gains despite a downturn in technology stocks dragging down Wall Street, marking the S&P 500’s most massive loose streak of the year.
Hong Kong stocks saw an increase following a surge in leading casino operators, insurers, and banks that lifted the benchmark, saving it from a five-week low.
At midday trading, the Hang Seng index went up by 1.3%, reaching 16,469.29, marking its strongest increase in a week and saving it from a five-week low. The Tech Index rose by 1.1%, and the Shanghai Composite index climbed 0.4%, reaching a four-month high.
AIA insurance company surged by 3.4% to HK$48.40, while Ping An, its competitor, gained 5% to HK$31.65 following a technical analysis indicating that these stocks were almost at oversold levels.
Bank of China, on the other hand, saw a 2.1% increase to HK$3.35 per share. In addition, casino operators experienced gains, with Sands China going up by 1.1% to HK$19.26 alongside its competitor Galaxy Entertainment, increasing by 1.3% to HK$34.65.
Before this increase, the Hang Seng index had experienced a 1.5% this week, marking its worst performance in over two months. This decline was attributed to China’s uncertain economic data, the Federal Reserve’s hawkish stance on interest rates, and the increasing geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. Currently, local stocks are trading at an average of 8.54 times forward earnings, the cheapest among global peers according to Bloomberg data.
Meanwhile, Japan’s Nikkei 225 went up by 0.3% to 38,090.87, while South Korea’s Kospi led the region’s gains, surging 1.8% to 2,631.15.
India’s Nifty 50 slightly went down by 0.01% tp 22,145. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 500 went up by 0.6% to 7,651.30.
Sophia is an experienced writer, reporter and newsdesk member, mostly on the financial sectors. For the past 5 years Sophia has covered a wide variety of topics such as the financial markets, economics, technology, fin-tech and trading. Sophia has been a part of the FX Leaders team since 2017 and works on producing valuable content and information for traders of all levels of experience.