The Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges entered the new trading week with solid growth. By contrast, stock indices in Tokyo and Seoul have gone into negative territory. Their decline was due to an increase in newly confirmed cases of coronavirus infection.
China’s stock exchanges ended the first day of trading of the new week rising to a more than two-month high. Stocks found support, especially for titles from the healthcare sector. The main Shanghai Stock Exchange index CSI300 rose 1.5 percent, its highest since March, similar to the Shanghai Composite aggregate index.
The Hong Kong Stock Exchange also headed upwards, with the Hang Seng index firming 0.6 percent. An index comprising only Chinese titles added a flat percentage. Trading in Hong Kong was riding a positive wave that came from the United States, where the stock exchanges ended last trading week in positive territory.
By contrast, the Tokyo stock market weakened, with the Nikkei index falling nearly 1 percent, and good sentiment from the US not carried over to Japan. According to analysts, the main factor is the slow-moving coronavirus vaccination and the rise of newly confirmed diseases. Similar reasons led to a weakening of the stock market in Seoul. The KOSPI index lost 0.6 percent on Monday.
