There are no significant changes in the stock markets of the Asia-Pacific region on the last business day of the week. The major stock indexes have almost stopped moving. Investors stopped working actively in anticipation of a new batch of news regarding the release of a vaccine against coronavirus infection. They are hoping that this will still be good news since the increase in the number of new cases of COVID-19 infection in the world not only does not slow down but also increases rapidly.
Japan's Nikkei 225 index rose 0.3% in the morning.
China's Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.3%. The Hong Kong Hang Seng index did not maintain a positive trend and reduced its positions by 0.1%.
It should be noted that there are fairly good statistical data on economic growth in China. In particular, the profits of large Chinese companies from the industrial sector increased in the second month of autumn, which happened for the sixth consecutive month. Moreover, the growth rates are gaining momentum and have already reached the maximum over the past almost four years. The total profit of industrial enterprises with total annual revenue of more than £20 million increased immediately by 28.2% on an annualized basis. Now its average level is consolidated at £642.91 billion, which corresponds to $97.79 billion.
Note that the increase in September of this year was more modest and amounted to 10.1%. In general, in the period from January to October, the value of the indicator changed in the positive direction by an average of 0.7% over the same period last year. However, it should be noted that in the first three quarters of 2020, there was a significant decrease in this indicator, which is due to the impact of the crisis associated with the coronavirus infection pandemic. Nevertheless, Chinese enterprises are already successfully overcoming this crisis, which allows us to speak of positive results for the year.
South Korea's KOSPI Index rose 0.3%.
In contrast, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.5%. However, this will not prevent it from fixing growth at the end of this week, which has been going on for four weeks in a row. Thus, in the last month alone, the indicator was able to grow as much as 9%, which brought it closer to demonstrating its best results in the entire history of observation.
European stock exchanges, on the contrary, observed a predominantly positive mood, although there are some indexes that have undergone a negative trend.
It should be noted, however, that stability in the markets did not appear due to the fact that there is no certainty and full-fledged hope for an improvement in the epidemiological situation in the region and in the world as a whole.
The general index of large enterprises in the European region STOXX Europe 600 increased by 0.1% in the morning and moved to 392.02 points.
The German DAX Index rose 0.31%. France's CAC 40 index rose 0.46%. Italy's FTSE Index climbed 0.51%. Spain's IBEX 35 Index jumped 0.34%. The UK's FTSE 100 was a lagging link, with a 0.69% decline.