On Monday, shares in the Asia-Pacific region reported a one-month high amid hopes for continued flexible monetary policy around the world and high rates of vaccination of the population against COVID-19.
The broadest index of Asian securities outside of Japan MSCI increased to 699.70 points. The last time the stock index reached such a high level was a month ago – on March 18.
Meanwhile, the shares of Chinese companies, which started with a negative trend, bounced back quite quickly. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index gained 0.83% and rose to 29,249 points. Recall that last week the indicator showed a steady growth of 1.2%, and this year - by 5.1%, which was its third annual increase.
South Korea's KOSPI rose by 0.35% to 3,210.1 points, while Japan's Nikkei 225 rose by 0.22% to 29,749 points.
Analysts attribute the permanent increase in stocks and indices in the Asian region to extremely favorable monetary and fiscal policies, which create an ideal environment for the growth of stock markets.
Meanwhile, the US equity market also ended the previous trading week higher, with the Dow Jones and S&P 500 indexes hitting record highs for the second day in a row.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by 0.48% to 34,200.67 points. The Standard & Poor's 500 gained 0.36% to report 4,185.47 points, while the NASDAQ Composite added 0.1% to 1,052.34 points.
The US stock market was supported by internal statistics and promising financial reports from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co.
In addition, last Friday, the US Department of Commerce reported that the number of homes whose construction was started in March, increased sharply by 19.4% compared to February and amounted to 1.739 million in terms of annual rates. This is a record high for fifteen years since 2006.
The consumer confidence index in the United States increased to 86.5 points this month from 84.9 points in March, which was the highest value since March last year. Despite this, experts predicted a more tangible increase in the index – up to 89.6 points.
Additional support for the market was also provided by data from the US Department of Labor. So, its representatives announced a drop in the number of new applications for unemployment benefits to the lowest level since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. At the same time, the growth rate of retail sales in America in March was the highest since May 2020 and significantly exceeded analysts' forecasts.
As for the preliminary scenarios of experts for the current week, on Monday, analysts exclude any shocks in the stock markets of America due to the lack of important internal data for publication.
On Monday, investors will be watching the earnings of IBM and Coca-Cola. Netflix will release its data on Tuesday, and by the end of the week, American Airlines and Southwest will be the first global cyclical publications since the pandemic to release the results.
On Monday, Australian shares closed the trading session unchanged from Friday, with the benchmark New Zealand index gaining 0.6%.
European indicators also showed strong growth: Euro Stoxx 50 futures increased by 0.2%, and the German DAX rose by 0.1%.