Asian Markets Gain as the Nikkei Leads

The Asian and Pacific Rim markets were broadly higher during the morning on Monday as a new week began. This is also the last trading day of the month.

Asian financial market participants are also coming to grips with the sudden resignation of Japan’s Prime Minister. Shinzo Abe has stepped down due to health concerns.

In Japan the benchmark Nikkei 225 was up by 1.9 percent and the broader Topix index in Tokyo was up 1.8 percent by the mid-morning. Japan’s Prime Minister has resigned. He was the country’s longest serving head of state. Asian traders will be watching Japanese politics over the next few days and weeks to see who will replace the man who gave us “Abenomics.”

This morning, the Japanese yen was trading at 105.93 yen versus the U.S. dollar. This is a spike higher as it traded at 106.50 yen against the dollar last week.

In Seoul, the Kospi composite index was up 0.39 percent and in Australia the S&P ASX tacked on 0.28 percent. In Hong Kong the Hang Seng Index added 1.5 percent.

Asian Traders React to Weak Economic Data from China

China has just released key monthly manufacturing activity data. For the month of August, the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) showed activity coming in at 51. This is according to the country’s National Bureau of Statistics and was below the expected print of 51.2.

The number is still above the expansion zone of fifty (50) but traders are watching Chinese data rather closely as the world’s second largest economy continues to recover from the coronavirus (Covid-19) lockdown. There is also political tensions with the United States that are threatening trade as well as Chinese technology firms like Huawei and TikTok.

The mainland bourses were slightly higher during the morning hours. The Shanghai composite saw shares advancing 0.65 percent and the smaller Shenzhen composite was up over 0.4 percent.