Asian Stocks Rise on the Back of Better-Than-Expected Chinese PMI Figures

By Gina Lee

Investing.com - Asian stock markets made modest gains as China announced higher-than-expected Purchasing Manager’s Index (PMI) data.

China’s Shanghai Composite gained 0.41% by 10:19 PM ET (3:19 AM GMT), while the Shenzhen Component was up 1.26% after data showed the country’s March manufacturing PMI came in at 52.0, compared with the record low of 35.7 last month. Analysts had expected a PMI of 45, according to data compiled by Investing.com.

The country also reported a non-manufacturing PMI of 52.3, much higher last month’s 29.6.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was up by 2.24%.

Meanwhile, Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.69%, while neighboring South Korea’s KOSPI gained 1.8%.

Down Under, the ASX 200 rose 2.26%.

But analysts cautioned against expectations of a rally, as global stock markets round off their worst quarter since the global financial crisis in 2008. Countries continue to count the economic cost of the COVID-19 pandemic as the number of global cases and deaths showed no sign of abating.

In the U.S., President Donald Trump extended the deadline for COVID-19 quarantine measures to April 30 yesterday.

“Certainly, we are seeing bottoming in the equity market,” Jun Bei Liu, Tribeca Investment Partners portfolio manager, told Bloomberg.

Still “it’s very hard to see equities rally away, on the basis that the infections are still getting worse and the employment numbers continue to track lower,” she added.

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