Asian stock markets: optimism in Tokyo, fears in China

The Japanese flagship Nikkei rose solidly by 2.32% to 21,916.31 points. The broad Topix index gained 1.8% to 1,577.34 points.

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Asian stock markets followed different directions again on Thursday, with Tokyo returning to pre-pandemic levels when Chinese markets worried about new steps in geopolitical tensions between the United States and China.

The Nikkei Japanese flagship index rose 2.32% to 21,916.31 points. The broad Topix index gained 1.8% to 1,577.34 points.

The previous day, Wall Street had also closed in strong progression, while several indicators have been encouraging in recent days, a sign of a gradual recovery in the economy and some confidence in the medium term.

Investors have also welcomed a new series of stimulus packages for the world’s major economies: the European Commission on Wednesday proposed a 750 billion euro plan, while a new extraordinary budget of 32 trillion yen ( about 270 billion euros) was adopted Wednesday by the Japanese government.

The upturn in Tokyo, however, could be halted again by the escalation of Sino-US tensions around the future of Hong Kong, analysts warn: “there is some kind of overheating in the market,” said Daiwa Securities.

Conversely in China, there was concern among investors after the US decision to revoke the preferential status of Hong Kong in response to the security bill for the territory currently under consideration in Beijing.

The Hong Kong Hang Seng index fell 0.72% to 23,132.76 points, while in mainland China, the Shanghai composite index edged up 0.33% to 2,846.22 points, the from Shenzhen contracting by 0.25% to 1,769.70 points.

On the side of values

NISSAN TO BONDI

Like that of its ally Renault the day before, the title of the automaker Nissan took off on Thursday (+ 8.1% to 449.4 yen), after having already taken 5.5% on Wednesday.

The Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Motors alliance unveiled its new strategy on Wednesday, focusing on restoring profitability rather than volumes. In addition, Nissan published after the closing a net loss for 2019/20 of 671.2 billion yen (5.7 billion euros) and announced plans to reduce its global production capacity by 20% by March 2023 The Mitsubishi Motors share took 6.36% to 334 yen.

DENTSU MAINTAINS ITS DIVIDENDS

Despite the abandonment of its 2020 earnings forecast, the Japanese advertising and communications giant Dentsu maintained its dividend forecast as it was, which pleased investors: its share soared 16.41% to 2,993 yen.

On the currency and oil side

The yen was stable against the dollar, at one dollar for 107.72 yen around 9:30 GMT, against 107.72 yen at 9:00 p.m. Wednesday.

The Japanese currency, however, was in slight decline against the euro, which was worth 118.61 yen against 118.56 yen the day before.

The European currency barely advanced against the dollar, a euro trading for 1.1011 dollars, against 1.1006 dollars on Wednesday.

Sino-American tensions and questions about a resumption of Russian black gold production continued to weigh on oil prices in Asia: after 09:20 GMT the price of a barrel of American crude WTI fell by 1.22% to 32.41 dollars and that of a barrel of Brent from the North Sea lost 0.98% to 34.40 dollars.

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