Investor sentiment improved over the weekend.
(Photo: dpa)
Hong Kong Optimistic investors in Japan pushed the Nikkei index, which comprises 225 stocks, up at the end of the week. The stock exchange climbed by up to 0.7 percent to 30,536 points, the broader Topix index rose by 0.5 percent.
The hope of a breath of fresh air from a new head of government, an increasing number of corona vaccinations and the declining number of corona cases in the country put investors in a buying mood. “Some investors are now looking to add weight to Japanese stocks in their portfolios,” said Jun Morita of Chibagin Asset Management.
The shares of M3, a service company focused on the medical sector, were among the strongest winners. The titles increased by around five percent. The Nikkei index has gained a good eight percent since the beginning of the month.
In China, the crisis at real estate company Evergrande continued to worry investors. The shares slipped at the top by more than 13 percent and fell to their lowest level in ten years. In the past three months they have lost 75 percent of their value. The Chinese Shanghai Composite share index lost 0.3 percent to 3595 points.
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Many investors anticipate the insolvency of the country’s second largest real estate developer, which is groaning under a mountain of debt of more than $ 300 billion. Goldman Sachs fears that the crisis could shake the entire Chinese real estate sector. For the real estate stock index, it was still 1.2 percent uphill – in the past five trading days it had lost almost five percent.
In Asian foreign exchange trading, the dollar gained 0.2 percent to 109.88 yen and stagnated at 6.4574 yuan. In relation to the Swiss currency, it was quoted hardly changed at 0.9276 francs. At the same time, the euro remained almost unchanged at 1.1763 dollars and was quoted little changed at 1.0912 francs. The pound sterling stagnated at $ 1.3786.
More: “Probably insolvent” – liquidity risks at Chinese real estate giant are worrying the markets
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