A roundup of trading on major world markets:
NEW YORK – Wall Street was closed on Monday for the President’s Day public holiday.
LONDON – Britain’s top equity index has risen, extending its recovery from the three-year lows it hit earlier in February, helped by a surge in Reckitt Benckiser.
The FTSE 100 index on Monday closed up 116.68 points, or 2 per cent, at 5,825.17 points.
Consumer goods group Reckitt rose 6.8 per cent, posting its biggest one-day rise since February 2009.
Reckitt posted stronger-than-expected full-year sales, helped by its focus on faster-growing consumer health products.
“These were a phenomenal set of results,” said Bernstein analyst Andrew Wood. “RB blew away consensus on every major metric.”
HSBC also advanced 1.4 per cent. HSBC, Prudential Plc and Standard Chartered benefited from a rise in shares in Hong Kong, where they have major operations.
HSBC also said it would keep its business headquarters in Britain .
China’s January trade performance came in worse than expected as tepid demand persisted.
But, some traders took reassurance from comments by China’s central bank governor that there was no basis for a continued depreciation in the yuan.
“The trade numbers are particularly disappointing, as we had started to see some recovery and we expected it to continue on the basis of the CNY’s depreciation,” said Guy Foster, head of research at Brewin Dolphin.
“Nevertheless, markets are in good spirit, partly because of reassuring comments from the PBoC that the depreciation may have largely run its course.”
HONG KONG – Asian stocks mainly rose as China’s central bank fixed the yuan at a much stronger rate and oil prices held on to recent gains, easing fears of global deflation.
The rally belied a string of poor economic data from Beijing to Tokyo as demand for safe-haven assets waned.
“We had a very strong statement from the Chinese authorities signalling they are committed to a stable currency and that’s helped sentiment … safe-haven flows have unwound somewhat,” said RIA Capital Markets strategist Nick Stamenkovic.
China’s spot yuan jumped more than one per cent to 6.4934 per US dollar – its firmest this year – after the People’s Bank of China set its daily midpoint 0.3 per cent stronger and the head of the bank was quoted as saying speculators should not be allowed to dominate market sentiment.
China’s weak exports and imports in January, down 11.2 per cent and 18.8 per cent year-on-year, respectively, seemed not to disturb markets. The resulting jump in the country’s trade surplus to $US63 billion ($A88.53 billion) for the month might have helped, as that may offer support to the yuan.
The disconnect between markets and economics was perhaps starkest in Japan, where the Nikkei jumped more than seven per cent, despite data showing the economy contracted by an annualised 1.4 per cent in the last three months of 2015, more than expected.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 2.3 per cent.
Hong Kong stocks posted their best performance in five months. The benchmark Hang Seng index jumped 3.3 per cent, to 18,918.14 points.
Having declined nearly 3 per cent in early trade, both the CSI300 index and the Shanghai Composite Index closed the session down only 0.6 per cent, at 2,946.71 points and 2,746.20 points, respectively.
WELLINGTON – The S&P/NZX 50 Index advanced 100.3 points, or 1.7 per cent, to 6034.29.
