Stock market shares

Why are China and Japan pushing the markets today?

Markets are euphoric today, at the start of a week that promises to be interesting in the wake of crucial central bank meetings.
Asian stocks advanced, led by Japanese stocks, as investors await policy decisions from Japan and the United States for near-term trading signals.
In China, economic data surprised on the upside for once, rekindling hopes of the dragon's recovery and pushing stocks.
However, the real estate sector still showed cracks.
Asia therefore joins the USA as an area specially observed by investors.
While awaiting the decisions of the Bank of Japan tomorrow, Tuesday 19 March, and those of the Fed – which will be made official on Wednesday 20 March, Asian stocks rebound.
Japan advances and waits for the BoJ: what happens? Japan's Nikkei closed the session with a jump of 2.53%.
Tuesday could mark the end of an era as the Bank of Japan is expected to finally end eight years of negative interest rates and end or change its yield curve control policy.
The Nikkei newspaper on Saturday became just the latest news outlet to report the move, after major companies handed out their biggest pay rises in 33 years.
There is, however, the possibility that the BoJ will wait for the April meeting, as it will publish updated economic forecasts at that time.
Carl Ang, fixed income analyst at MFS Investment Management highlighted: “For Japan a measured and gradual path of policy normalization appears appropriate for an economy unaccustomed to higher rates and so the policy message will be key.” Markets also assume that the BoJ will increase the cost of borrowing very gradually and have priced in a rate of 0.27% by December, compared to the current -0.1%.
China believes in recovery, but there is real estate danger.
Chinese indices also had a positive session.
Shenzhen rose 1.46% and Shanghai rose 0.99%.
Beijing reported that industrial production increased 7% annually between January and February, while retail sales grew 5.5% from a year earlier.
But real estate remained a cause for concern as investment in the sector fell 9% year-on-year, underlining the need for further policy support.
“We believe China's sequential growth momentum remained robust in the first quarter, despite notable divergences across sectors,” Goldman Sachs analysts said in a report following the data release.
“However, to secure the ambitious “around 5%” growth target this year, further policy easing is still needed, especially on the demand side (e.g.
fiscal, real estate and consumption).” Despite the optimistic results, National Statistics Bureau spokesperson Liu Aihua warned that domestic demand remains insufficient.

Author: Hermes A.I.

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