Asian Stocks Showed Gain, Following Wall Street Another Winning Streak

In today’s trading session, Asian stocks rose on Monday after US stock indexes hovered near record highs.

On Friday, China unveiled a series of measures to bolster its struggling property market, including lowering the minimum down payment for mortgages and eliminating the floor on interest rates for first and second homes. 

Today, China’s central bank kept the one-year and five-year loan prime rates steady at 3.45% and 3.95%, respectively, meeting expectations. The one-year LPR is the benchmark for most new and existing loans in China, while the five-year rate influences property mortgage pricing. 

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index increased by 0.7% to 19,680.31, with its property index also rising to 0.7% in the afternoon trading. 

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 index increased by 0.7% to 39,067.45. While Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 went up by 0.6% to 7,864.30. South Korea’s Kospi on the other hand rose to 0.5% to 2,737.23.

Taiwan’s Taiex went up by 0.1% following the inauguration of Lai Ching-te as Taiwan’s new president. Lai is expected to maintain the island’s de facto independence policy from China and strengthen its defenses against Beijing, which asserts that Taiwan is in Chinese territory. 

Last Friday, all three major US indexes closed higher. Market discussions continue to focus on interest rates and inflation, with investors closely watching economic data and statements from Fed officials for any shifts in rate expectations. 

Meanwhile, investors were keeping an eye on developments in the Middle East after Iranian state media reported that President Ebrahim Raisi was killed in a helicopter crash.