After a roller-coaster October, Asian stock markets started November with widespread gains.
Japan was the notable exception, with the Nikkei
NIK, -0.78%
down 0.5% amid caution over U.S. trade policies and the upcoming midterm elections. The telecom sector fell 6.3%, by far the worst among 33 Topix sectors, after NTT DoCoMo said it would cut mobile service charges. NTT DoCoMo
9437, -11.67%
was down 11% while fellow telecom KDDI
9433, -15.67%
dropped 15% and SoftBank Group
9984, -7.94%
sank 6.9%. Panasonic
6752, -8.44%
was also sharply down.
Meanwhile, Chinese stocks surged Thursday, with Hong Kong‘s Hang Seng Index
HSI, +1.62%
jumping 1.4%. Apple Inc.
AAPL, +2.61%
suppliers Sunny Optical
2382, +6.18%
and AAC Tech
2018, +5.95%
, rose 3.6% and 3.8%, respectively, a day after Apple unveiled new computers and iPads. Country Garden
2007, +7.99%
and China Overseas Land
0688, +3.26%
rose 8.2% and 3.2%, respectively, after what UOB Kay Hian analyst Ivan Ip called an upbeat assessment on mainland China’s construction recovery from yesterday’s PMI reading. Among the losers, CLP Holdings
0002, -1.71%
was down 1.3% and Power Assets
0006, -1.24%
slipped 1.1%.
Mainland China benchmarks continued higher, as the latest Politburo meeting called for “healthy development” of the capital market, with Shanghai Composite
SHCOMP, +1.18%
gaining 1.1%. The smaller-cap Shenzhen Composite
399106, +1.95%
was up 1.5%, following its seventh straight monthly decline. Some AI-related names popped, boosted by President Xi Jinping’s pep talk, while infrastructure stocks outperformed the boarder market.
Australia’s ASX 200
XJO, +0.07%
rose 0.3%, as BHP Billiton
BHP, +3.26%
rose after announcing a plan to give $10.4 billion from its shale sale to investors via an equally split buyback and special dividend. Stocks in New Zealand
NZ50GR, +0.95%
rose as well.
Taiwan’s Taiex
Y9999, +0.30%
gained 0.5% despite fears that the country’s economic slowdown could be worse than it seems, after third-quarter GDP grew 2.28% year-over-year, slower than the previous quarter’s 3.3% expansion. Benchmark indexes in South Korea
SEU, +0.70%
, Singapore
STI, +0.95%
and Malaysia
FBMKLCI, -0.14%
all posted solid gains.
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Source : MTV
