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Markets across Asia rose on Friday as sentiment was boosted by positive economic data from China and tailwinds from the successful listing of British chip designer Arm.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng stock index led the region with a 1.7 percent rise, while Tokyo’s Topix rose 1.2 percent and South Korea’s Kospi rose 1.3 percent. China’s CSI 300 index of stocks listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen erased earlier losses on the day, rising 0.1 percent.
The gains for Asian stocks came on official data that showed retail sales and industrial production rose more than analysts expected. China’s economy has struggled to recover after disruptive zero-Covid measures were lifted late last year, and investors are on high alert for signs that recent stimulus measures may be gaining traction.
“There is growing optimism among a cohort of investors who believe Beijing’s recent initiatives to stimulate the economy and stabilize financial markets are showing signs of success,” said Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management.
Innes added that “a single month of positive data is not enough to confirm a sustainable path to recovery.”
The positive data came after the People’s Bank of China cut banks’ reserve requirement ratio by 0.25 percentage points to 7.4 percent, freeing up an estimated RMB500 billion ($70 billion) of liquidity for lenders.
Analysts at Goldman Sachs wrote in a note that the cut would help offset a recent surge in local government bond issuance in recent weeks, which has drained liquidity from the banking system and pushed up the cost of interbank lending.
“Injecting liquidity by lowering the reserve requirement ratio would help lower interbank interest rates amid high liquidity demand and ensure low funding costs for banks,” the analysts wrote.
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Market sentiment was also boosted by the debut of chip designer Arm, which closed its first day of trading in New York with a gain of almost 25 percent.
The SoftBank-backed company’s nearly $5 billion listing marked Wall Street’s biggest initial public offering in nearly two years, with gains from day one pushing the company’s market capitalization to more than $65 billion.
Both the S&P 500 and the technology-focused Nasdaq Composite closed nearly 1 percent higher on Thursday.
Futures forecast the S&P 500 rising 0.2 percent when trading on Wall Street begins later in the day, while the FTSE 100 was expected to rise 0.5 percent.
Source : www.ft.com