Stock Market

16 Nov 2021

Asian shares Scale up; Yuan Reaches 5-Month High amid Biden-Xi Talks

The Index Today

Asian shares climbed up with the Yuan hitting a new five month high as U.S president Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping held a virtual meeting for talks. Investor sentiment was optimistic as both leaders agreed to avoid conflict.

MSCI’s index of Asia Pacific shares outside of Japan increased to the highest level since October 27, going up by 0.27% whereas Nikkei went up 0.4%. Dickie Wong, executive director for research at Kingston Securities said, “The vide call is so important because I do think tensions between the two countries are easing and I guess the overall market sentiment will continue to improve.”

Relationship between both countries have been strained in recent years under Trump’s administration. The prolonged trade war and tensions of both nations have created strong effects on the market in the past. With a positive outlook in recent talks and friendlier relations, the market pushed the Yuan to a new high in morning trade. The onshore spot price reached 6.3666 per dollar, the strongest gain seen since June.

Chinese blue chips increased 0.5% in share markets with the Hong Kong benchmark going up 1%. On the other hand, Chinese developers on the index of Hong Kong gained as much as 3%. However, Kaisa Group shares fell 13.5% after liquidity issues were announced by its parent company. Market Strategist David Chao at Invesco said, “So far we haven’t seen a loss of confidence in certain developers and the government has come out more forcefully to ensure that homeowners are protected.”

©Photo: AP Photo/Kin Cheung