Asian stocks rose on Monday as markets in the region followed Wall Street higher on gains in US regional banks.
Hong Kong’s benchmark Hang Seng rose 0.8 percent, while in China, the CSI 300 index of Shanghai and Shenzhen shares rose 1 percent. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.7 percent, while Japan’s Topix broke ranks with the rest of the region, falling 0.3 percent.
Gains in Asia came after a rebound at the end of last week for U.S. banking stocks, which had previously been rocked by fears of the collapse of the creditor First Republic. The KBW regional banking index rose 4.7 percent on Friday, while the broader S&P 500 added 1.9 percent and the technology-focused Nasdaq Composite added 2.3 percent.
But analysts were pessimistic that markets in Asia would push higher without an improvement in economic data from China or signs that the US central bank might start cutting interest rates.
“Overall market sentiment has stabilized, but I really don’t think so [the market] it can break the wait-and-see, up-and-down patterns we’ve seen,” said Dickie Wong, head of research at Kingston Securities. “Even Friday’s gains on Wall Street were mainly driven by regional banks, so I clearly don’t see anything positive in the near term.”
Futures tipped the S&P 500 to fall 0.1 percent when Wall Street trade opens Monday. Markets in London are closed for a bank holiday.
Elsewhere in the markets, Brent crude, the international crude benchmark, rose 0.1 percent to $75.36 a barrel, while U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate rose 0.1 percent to $71.43 a barrel.
In government bond markets, yields fell slightly as bond prices edged lower after Friday’s sell-off, with the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield down 0.01 percentage point to 3.424 percent in Asian trading on Monday.
