Stock Asia showed growth at the close. China's Shanghai Composite index rose 0.57%, while the Shenzhen Composite Index rose 0.59%, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose 1.49%. South Korea's KOSPI gained 1.99%, Japan's Nikkei 225 - 2.22%, and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 - 1.08%.
One of the reasons for the positive mood of investors is the reduction of tension around Ukraine. According to the latest information, Russian troops are returning to their permanent locations after the end of the exercises. This information was perceived by investors as a signal on the way to a peaceful resolution of differences between Ukraine and the Russian Federation. This news had a positive impact on the US stock market.
Investors are also optimistic about the decline in inflation in China. Over the past month, the inflation rate has decreased to 0.9% (for comparison: in December, the growth was 1.5%). At the same time, experts expected an increase in inflation by 1%.
Along with this, another indicator – producer prices - increased by 9.1% over the past month (for comparison: in December, the growth was 10.3%). At the same time, the indicator turned out to be better than the predictions of experts who expected it to increase to 9.5%.
Among Chinese companies, BOC Hong Kong, (+4.9%), BYD Co. (+3.2%), Geely Automobile Holdings, Ltd. (+2.5%) Alibaba Group Holding, Ltd. (+2.5%) and Xiaomi (+2.2%) rose more than others.
At the same time, due to the fall in the cost of oil, the securities of enterprises engaged in oil refining fell in price, in particular, PetroChina shares lost 1%.
The Japanese stock market has begun to recover after a significant decline the day before following an increase in US indicators. The largest growth on the Tokyo Stock Exchange was shown by Tokyo Electron (+4.91%) and Advantest (+4.78%).
Thanks to good reporting and a positive outlook for 2022, the value of Bridgestone Corp. securities. it rose by 7.3%. The company announced plans to buy back shares totaling 100 billion yen– which is about 3.5% of all securities.
The shares of Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Ltd. and Japan Steel Works, Ltd. showed good growth, which increased by 6.4% and 6%.
SoftBank Group shares gained a little less in price, rising by 1.8%, Sony - by 1%, Fast Retailing - by 2.8% and Toyota Motor - by 2%.
Following the increase in the indicator of the Korean stock exchange, the price of Samsung Electronics Co. securities rose by 1.2%, and Hyundai Motor - by 1.1%.
Capitalization of the Australian Liontown Resources, Ltd. increased by 18% as a result of the release of information about the deal with Tesla for the supply of lithium.
At the same time, the value of Fortescue Metals Group shares decreased by 2%. This was caused by a 32% decrease in the company's profit for the first half of the year, which was due to increased costs and a decrease in the cost of iron ore. The company had to cut its dividend from 1.47 to 0.86 Australian dollars.
BHP (-1.8%) and Rio Tinto (-0.2%) also showed a decline in the share price.