HONG KONG- China and Hong Kong stocks jumped on Monday as US President-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping’s call eased some of the Sino-US tensions.
China’s blue-chip CSI300 Index climbed 0.9 percent by the lunch break, adding to the 2.1 percent gain last week. The Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.5 percent to 3,257.23.
In Hong Kong, the benchmark Hang Seng jumped 2.3 percent for its biggest gain in five weeks.
The tech sector led the advancers offshore, with food delivery platform Meituan surging 6.8 percent and e-commerce giant Alibaba advancing 6.1 percent.
Sentiment was upbeat on Monday after Trump and Xi discussed issues including TikTok, trade and Taiwan in a phone call on Friday, as Trump heads to the White House again promising tariffs that could ratchet up tensions between the world’s two biggest economies.
“It sends a positive signal to the markets, at least they’re still talking,” said Jason Chan, senior investment strategist at Bank of East Asia. “The market has already priced in a substantial amount of risks after Trump won the election, so there’s a chance for a mean-reversion in sentiment after excessive pessimism.”
Still, investors anticipate market volatility to increase in the coming days, as Trump is set to announce a slew of executive orders later on Monday covering security, deportations, tariff issues, and other campaign promises.
“A burst of policy announcements on Trump’s Day One should give better direction, but is unlikely to provide markets with full clarity. This could create volatility,” analysts at Barclays said in a note to clients.
On the policy front, China left benchmark lending rates unchanged for a third consecutive month earlier in the day, as expected, as a weakening yuan has limited Beijing’s monetary policy efforts.
The one-year loan prime rate (LPR) was kept at 3.1 percent, while the five-year LPR was unchanged at 3.6 percent at the monthly fixing on Monday.
Meanwhile, China’s yuan rose on Monday to its highest against the dollar since Jan. 3 buoyed by a friendly call between US President-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday and better-than-expected fourth-quarter economic data.
The two spoke by phone just days ahead of Trump’s return to the White House with his threat of new US tariffs that could ratchet up tensions between the world’s two biggest economies. Both leaders were upbeat about the call.
The yuan was 0.12 percent higher at 7.3160 to the dollar after trading in a range of 7.3088 to 7.3246.
