Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index soars 5% as Asian stocks jump, with Japan’s Nikkei up around 3%

Key Points

• Shares in Asia-Pacific were higher in Thursday morning trade, with Hong Kong stocks leading gains regionally.
• The U.S. Federal Reserve on Wednesday approved a 0.25 percentage point rate hike, the first increase since Dec. 2018.
• Officials at the U.S. central bank also signaled an aggressive path ahead, with rate rises coming at the six remaining meetings this year.

SINGAPORE — Shares in Asia-Pacific rose in Thursday morning trade following overnight gains on Wall Street, while the U.S. Federal Reserve announced its first rate hike in more than three years.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index led gains among the region’s major markets, surging 5.02% in morning trade and erasing heavy losses from earlier in the week. The benchmark index saw its best day since October 2008 on Wednesday as it rocketed 9%.

The Hang Seng Tech index soared 5.97%, with Tencent up 5.56%, Alibaba jumping 8.65% and JD.com surging around 11%.

Chinese real estate stocks in Hong Kong also saw big gains, with Country Garden up 18.71%, Sunac soaring 39.44% and China Evergrande Group popping 13.95%. The Hang Seng Properties index traded 6.78% higher. Those gains came after China’s Ministry of Finance announced on Wednesday that there were no plans to expand a test of property tax this year.

Mainland Chinese stocks rose, with the Shanghai composite up 1.23% while the Shenzhen component gained 1.95%.

China markets bounced on Wednesday after a Chinese state media report signaled support for Chinese stocks. U.S.-listed Chinese stocks also soared on Wednesday following the report, which said regulators from both countries are working toward a cooperation plan on U.S.-listed Chinese stocks.

Other Asia-Pacific markets also jumped on Thursday. The Nikkei 225 in Japan surged 2.98% while the Topix index climbed 1.98%.

South Korea’s Kospi gained 1.74%. Over in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 advanced 1.35%.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan traded 2.96% higher.

Oil prices were higher in the morning of Asia trading hours, with international benchmark Brent crude futures up 0.81% to $98.81 per barrel. U.S. crude futures climbed 0.94% to $95.93 per barrel.

Fed rate hike

The U.S. Federal Reserve on Wednesday approved a 0.25 percentage point rate hike, the first increase since Dec. 2018.

Officials at the U.S. central bank also signaled an aggressive path ahead, with rate rises coming at the six remaining meetings this year.

“Given our stagflationary baseline which got exacerbated by the Russia/Ukraine war, it appears that the Fed’s focus will weigh more on inflation fighting despite the uncertainty created by the situation in Ukraine based on yesterday’s meeting,” Salman Ahmed, global head of macro and strategic asset allocation at Fidelity International, wrote in a Thursday note.

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Overnight on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 518.76 points, or 1.55%, to 34,063.10 while the S&P 500 advanced 2.24% to 4,357.86. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite surged 3.77% to 13,436.55.

Currencies

The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 98.391 after a recent fall from around the 99 level.

The Japanese yen traded at 118.79 per dollar, weaker than levels below 118 seen against the greenback earlier this week. The Australian dollar changed hands at $0.7307, holding on to gains after yesterday’s jump from below $0.72.

TICKER	COMPANY	NAME	PRICE	CHANGE	%CHANGE
.N225	Nikkei 225 Index	*NIKKEI	26529.89	767.88	2.98
.HSI	Hang Seng Index	*HSI	21078.67	991.17	4.93
.AXJO	S&P/ASX 200	*ASX 200	7276.5	101.3	1.41
.SSEC	Shanghai	*SHANGHAI	3229.33	58.62	1.85
.KS11	KOSPI Index	*KOSPI	2707.58	48.35	1.82
.FTFCNBCA	CNBC 100 ASIA IDX	*CNBC 100	9030.14	278.97	3.19

Source : CNBC