Asia shares rally as China measures boost market
By Wayne Cole
SYDNEY (Reuters) — Asian shares rallied on Monday as China announced new measures to support its ailing markets, though the mood was cautious ahead of readings on U.S. jobs and inflation that could decide whether interest rates have to rise again.
Beijing on Sunday announced it would halve the stamp duty on stock trading in the latest attempt to boost the struggling market and followed steps to support the housing market
The help was needed given profits at China's industrial firms fell 6.7% in July from a year earlier, extending this year's slump to a seventh month.
Investors welcomed any aid they could get and Chinese blue chips jumped 3.0% in choppy trade, coming off their lows for the year so far.
Eyes are now on the official PMI for August out on Thursday which is still expected to show activity is in the red.
«We believe these latest measures are in line with the directive from the July Politburo meeting, when the authorities pledged to invigorate China's capital markets, but do not represent a meaningful increment in policy support for reviving the real economy,» wrote analysts at Nomura in a note.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan climbed 1.4%, having eked out minor gains last week to break a three-week losing streak.
Japan's Nikkei rose 1.5%, underpinned in part by the persistent weakness of the yen.
The improvement in risk sentiment saw EUROSTOXX 50 futures add 0.7%, while FTSE futures were closed for a holiday. S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq futures both edged up 0.1%, extending last week's modest rise.
The market did manage to weather a slightly hawkish outlook from Federal Reserve Jerome Powell, who reiterated they might have to raise rates again but promised to move
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