Asian markets rose in early trading Monday after encouraging economic news from China.
China’s official purchasing managers index, released Sunday, showed that the country’s manufacturing sector rebounded strongly in March, to a six-month high of 50.5, from 49.2 in February. Later, the private Caixin China manufacturing purchasing managers index rose to 50.8 in March from 49.9 in February, expanding for the first time in four months. The readings helped ease worries that the world’s second-largest economy was significantly slowing down.
The Shanghai Composite
surged 2.3%, and the smaller-cap Shenzhen Composite
soared 3% on the news. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index
rose 1.5%, and Japan’s Nikkei
was up 1.9%. South Korea’s Kospi
advanced 1.2% Benchmark indexes in Taiwan
and Singapore
rose as well, though stocks in Indonesia
declined. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200
gained 0.7%.
Among individual stocks, Apple Inc.
supplier Japan Display
skyrocketed after announcing it would seek nearly $1 billion in new financing. SoftBank
and Toyota
also advanced. Sunny Optical
and Galaxy Entertainment
rose in Hong Kong, and Samsung
and SK Hynix
gained in Korea. Beach Energy
and Rio Tinto
advanced in Australia.
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