Having been battered earlier this week, Hong Kong stocks rebounded today after a comforting statement from the Chinese market regulator. Meanwhile, equity markets in Asia-Pacific also rose after the US Federal Reserve left its benchmark interest rate near zero.
The Chinese Special Administrative Region’s Hang Seng index surged 2.75% in morning trade on Thursday. The index had gained over 1% yesterday, after a two-day rout which saw the index plunge more than 8% earlier this week.
Shares of Chinese tech firms listed in Hong Kong, which had seen heavy sell-off earlier this week, also soared. Shares of Tencent Holdings Ltd rallied 8.36%. On the other hand, e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd saw its share prices climb 6.71%. On the other hand, shares of Meituan – which was the worst hit stock in the rout earlier this week – climbed 8.72%. The Hang Seng Tech index soared 6.77% -- even though it continues to be in the bear zone. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index – which houses all Chinese shares listed in Hong Kong – surged 3.31%.
In Mainland China as well, stocks saw strong gains: the Shanghai Composite was up 1.04% and the Shenzhen Component rallied 2.41%.
The Chinese and Hong Kong markets witnessed heavy buying after China’s securities regulator told brokerages on Wednesday that the country will allow the Chinese firms to go public in the US as long as they meet the listing requirements, as per reports.
In Japan, the benchmark Nikkei 225 advanced 0.76%, while, the Topix index gained 0.26%.
Elsewhere, South Korea’s KOSPI rose 0.18%.
Down Under, in Australia, the benchmark ASX200 touched historic high levels, yet again. At the time of filing this copy, the benchmark was trading 0.39% higher.
Morgan Stanley Capital International’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan traded 1.1% higher.
Overnight at Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 127.59 points to 34,930.93, while the S&P 500 was little changed at 4,400.64. The Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.7% to 14,762.58 – on the back of heavy rally in shares of Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL).
The Federal Reserve’s Open Committee ended its two-day meeting by keeping interest rates in a target range of zero to 0.25%, while sounding dovish – unlike last time.
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