On Monday, the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong rose more than 2%, as it lead to gains in the Asia-Pacific markets, while a 2% gain was also recorded in oil futures.

Asia-Pacific markets gain

There was a 2.7% gain in Hong Kong’s benchmark index, as it closed the day at 20,846.18, while a 3.02% gain was also recorded in the Hang Seng Tech index. There was a 5.86% rise in Meituan shares, while advancement of 4.11% was recorded in Longfor.

Markets in mainland China also advanced. There was a 1.55% increase in the Shanghai Composite to reach 3,278.10 and a 0.98% gain was recorded in the Shenzhen Component drove it to 12,532.65. The South Korean Kospi index also rose by 1.9% to close the day at 2,375.25, while a 1.88% rise was seen in the Kosdaq that pushing it to 776.72.

The Australian S&P/ASX 200 gained 1.23% to close the day at 6,687.1. Likewise, a 1.8% rise was recorded in MSCI’s broadest index of shares of Asia-Pacific, not including Japan. As for Japanese markets, they were closed on Monday because of a holiday.

Market analysts said that the Asian markets were bound to be positive because the week does not really have a lot of macro content on its slate. With positive US futures and the Friday rally on Wall Street, this result was not really surprising.

Changing sentiments

According to experts, it is volatile markets that see a downside risk for now because of the number of uncertainties. However, they also added that there could be a quick change in sentiment, especially if the data is positive. This refers to economic data as well as earnings data.

In terms of economic data, the consumer price index in New Zealand climbed by 7.3% in the June quarter, as opposed to the same period a day earlier. These figures are the highest seen in the country in the last 32 years. Official data showed that the reason for this increase was an increase in rental costs for housing and increasing prices of construction.

Last week, a 50 basis points increase in the interest rate came from the Reserve Bank of New Zealand for combating soaring inflation in the country. On Monday, the New Zealand dollar had risen to $0.6177.

Other Asia-Pacific regions

The government in Macao said that the special administrative region would continue its suspension of activities across commercial companies, industries, and venues until Friday. Last week, Hong Kong-listed casino stocks took a hit because of this announcement.

Investors are keeping an eye out for the minutes of the meeting of the Reserve Bank of Australia, the interest rate decision of the Bank of Japan, and the prime rate decision in China for one year and five years.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average exceeded 600 points on Friday, as markets responded positively to economic data and bank earnings. There was a 2.15% gain in the Dow, a 1.92% rise in the S&P 500, and the Nasdaq Composite recorded gains of 1.79%.