Asian stocks dip ahead of more China cues; Nikkei coasts past 40,000
Investing.com-- Most Asian stocks fell slightly on Monday, weighed chiefly by caution ahead of China’s national congress for 2024, although a sustained rally in technology stocks saw Japanese markets make new highs.
Regional markets mostly shrugged off a positive lead-in from Wall Street, which clocked record highs on Friday. U.S. stock futures were also muted in Asian trade on Monday, with a testimony by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and key nonfarm payrolls data spurring caution this week.
But the biggest point of focus for Asian markets was the annual National People’s Congress in Beijing, which opens on Tuesday and is largely set to determine the path of Asia’s largest economy in the coming year.
While optimism over more policy support helped Chinese shares rebound from five-year lows through February, their rally now appeared to be running out of steam.
China’s blue-chip Shanghai Shenzhen CSI 300 index fell 0.2% on Monday, while the Shanghai Composite index shed 0.3%.
Losses in mainland stocks dragged Hong Kong’s Hang Seng down 0.5%.
Recent official data still painted a bleak picture of the Chinese economy, while calls for liquidating the country’s biggest property developer, Country Garden Holdings Company Ltd (HK:2007), pointed to more trouble for the property market.
Japanese stocks continued to vastly outpace their regional peers, with the Nikkei 225 rising 0.7% to a new record high of 40,356.0 points.
The broader TOPIX index rose 0.2% and also hit a record high.
The Nikkei’s crossing of the 40,000 points saw the index clear a major psychological hurdle- a trend that could attract more gains in the near-term.
Technology stocks were the biggest boost to the Nikkei, as persistent hype over artificial
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