China leaves benchmark lending rates unchanged; Japan stocks briefly touch 33-year highs

Asia-Pacific markets were mostly higher on Monday after most major bourses ended lower in the previous session, while China left its benchmark lending rates unchanged.

The People’s Bank of China’s one-year loan prime rate — the peg for most household and corporate loans in China — was at 3.45%. The five-year benchmark loan rate — the peg for most mortgages — stood at 4.2%.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 briefly touched a 33-year high earlier in the session, but struggled to hold on to gains afterwards. The index was down 0.59% and ended at 33,388.03, while the Topix fell 0.77% to 2,372.6.

Hong Kong stocks led declines in Asia-Pacific on Friday, as shares of Alibaba plunged after the Chinese e-commerce giant said it would not proceed with the full spinoff of its cloud group.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rebounded and rose 1.77% in the final hour of trading, while China’s CSI 300 ended 0.23% higher at 3,576.32.

South Korea’s Kospi rose about 0.86% to close at 2,491.2, while the small-cap Kosdaq saw a larger gain of 1.75% to end at 813.08.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.13% to finish at 7,058.4.

On Friday, the S&P 500 ended higher and clinched a third straight winning week amid a red-hot November rally.

The broader index added 0.13%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the day higher by 0.01%, while the Nasdaq Composite crept up by 0.08%.

The main U.S. indexes clocked their third straight positive week. The S&P 500 added 2.2%, while the Nasdaq jumped about 2.4%. The Dow closed the week with a 1.9% advance. This is the first three-week win streak for the Dow and S&P 500 since July, and the first since June for the Nasdaq.

Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2023/11/20/live-markets-asia-markets-set-to-bounce-china-lpr-eyed-.html