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Asian stocks rallied sharply on Thursday as China’s central bank cut interest rates to further boost growth and announce double-digit growth in Japanese exports.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 1.1 percent to 27,772.93 points in the wake of data showing exports rose 17.5 percent in December from a year earlier. The increase in car exports climbed to 17.5% from 4.1% in November.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng jumped 3.2%, while in mainland China the Shanghai Composite lost gains with small losses of 0.1%.
China’s central bank cut interest rates on one- and five-year loans after slowing growth in the world’s second-largest economy to 4% in the last quarter amid a pandemic and a Beijing campaign to curb lending to real estate industry.
The key interest rate on one-year loans was reduced by 10 basis points and on five-year loans by 5 basis points – in the first reduction since April 2020.
Kospi gained 0.7% in South Korea, while Australia’s S & P / ASX 200 gained small gains of 0.1%. The indices in Singapore and Malaysia are also moving upwards.
On Wall Street, the index continued to fall on Wednesday with the S&P 500 losing 1% after Tuesday’s slump of 1.8% as investors try to assess how the Federal Reserve will move in the coming months to face the rally of inflation.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 1%, while the tech Nasdaq lost 1.1% after Tuesday’s dive of 2.6%. The technology index has entered a correction zone, having lost a total of 10.7% from its last high recorded on November 19.
