Asian markets rebound after Friday’s sell-off; Chinese loan interest rates in focus.
Asia-Pacific markets rebounded from Friday’s sell-off as investors looked at new data from China, Japan and South Korea this week.
On Friday, markets in the region fell after Israel attacked Iran, causing stocks to fall and safe-haven assets to rise.
On Monday, China’s one-year and five-year loan interest rates remained unchanged at 3.45 percent and 3.95 percent, respectively. The five-year LPR acts as the anchor for most property mortgages.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose 1.71 percent, while China’s CSI 300 index traded near the flat line following the LPR announcement.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.46 percent, while the broad-based Topix saw a larger gain of 0.95 percent.
South Korea’s Kospi index also gained 0.85 percent, while the small-scale Kosdaq index gained 0.49 percent.
In Australia, S&P/ASX 200 started the week with a 1.08 percent increase.