SHANGHAI: China's key stock index ended up 1.3 percent on Monday, Aug 2 the highest level in two-and-a-half months, as funds, private equity and insurance companies increased their holdings in anticipation of a further rally, analysts said.
With so many investors rushing into buying stocks, the market was flushed with money, which offset weaker manufacturing output in China in July, they said.
The index was also boosted by wine companies, as markets expected these wine brewers to publish optimistic earnings results in the second quarter.
The Shanghai Composite Index ended at 2,672.5 points, up from Friday's 0.6-percent fall.
"The market expects second half earnings results will be good. This will guide the index higher for a while," said Zhang Qi, an analyst at Haitong Securities.
Turnover in Shanghai A shares increased to 110 billion yuan ($16.24 billion) by midday from 94 billion yuan on Friday.
In Tokyo, Japan's Nikkei average rose 0.4 percent on Monday as investors snapped up shares of firms with robust earnings, while a pull-back in the yen after last week's rise also helped the market to shrug off dull U.S. economic data.
Honda Motor Co climbed 4 percent after posting its best quarterly operating profit in 2-'' years after the market's close on Friday, while raising its forecasts despite a strong yen.
Although the yen's slight retracement sparked short-covering in Japanese stocks early on Monday, currency moves remained a concern and kept market gains in check after the yen surged to an eight-month high of 86 to the dollar on Friday.
"U.S. GDP fell a bit but it was basically within expectations, and while there's still concern about the pace of the U.S. economic recovery, the moves today basically are just a reflection of strong Japanese earnings," said Noritsugu Hirakawa, a strategist at Okasan Securities.
"But the current dollar/yen level isn't one that invites really strong buying."
In the latest in a string of weak U.S. data, U.S. gross domestic product expanded at a 2.4 percent annual rate in the second quarter, less than the 2.5 percent pace analysts polled by Reuters had expected.
But a jump in the Chicago Purchasing Managers Index to 62.3 in July took the edge off the GDP figures, market players said. Analysts had expected a reading of 56.5.
The benchmark Nikkei rose 33.01 points to 9,570.31, while the broader Topix inched up 0.1 percent to 850.69.
Market players warned that the Nikkei faces stiff resistance around 9,800 points, a mid-July peak it has several times tried and failed to break.
Support for the Nikkei was solid, however, at its 25-day moving average, now near 9,470 points, market players said, but they added that trade was likely to remain rangebound ahead of a string of U.S. economic indicators due out later this week, including jobs data on Friday.
"If the jobs figures aren't bad shares may well be able to stage a bit of a rebound, but at this stage investors appear to be neither notably long nor short on the Nikkei," said Nagayuki Yamagishi, a strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities.
The rush of Japanese quarterly earnings reports is past its peak but several key companies are set to announce later this week, including Toyota Motor Corp on Wednesday. - Reuters
With so many investors rushing into buying stocks, the market was flushed with money, which offset weaker manufacturing output in China in July, they said.
The index was also boosted by wine companies, as markets expected these wine brewers to publish optimistic earnings results in the second quarter.
The Shanghai Composite Index ended at 2,672.5 points, up from Friday's 0.6-percent fall.
"The market expects second half earnings results will be good. This will guide the index higher for a while," said Zhang Qi, an analyst at Haitong Securities.
Turnover in Shanghai A shares increased to 110 billion yuan ($16.24 billion) by midday from 94 billion yuan on Friday.
In Tokyo, Japan's Nikkei average rose 0.4 percent on Monday as investors snapped up shares of firms with robust earnings, while a pull-back in the yen after last week's rise also helped the market to shrug off dull U.S. economic data.
Honda Motor Co climbed 4 percent after posting its best quarterly operating profit in 2-'' years after the market's close on Friday, while raising its forecasts despite a strong yen.
Although the yen's slight retracement sparked short-covering in Japanese stocks early on Monday, currency moves remained a concern and kept market gains in check after the yen surged to an eight-month high of 86 to the dollar on Friday.
"U.S. GDP fell a bit but it was basically within expectations, and while there's still concern about the pace of the U.S. economic recovery, the moves today basically are just a reflection of strong Japanese earnings," said Noritsugu Hirakawa, a strategist at Okasan Securities.
"But the current dollar/yen level isn't one that invites really strong buying."
In the latest in a string of weak U.S. data, U.S. gross domestic product expanded at a 2.4 percent annual rate in the second quarter, less than the 2.5 percent pace analysts polled by Reuters had expected.
But a jump in the Chicago Purchasing Managers Index to 62.3 in July took the edge off the GDP figures, market players said. Analysts had expected a reading of 56.5.
The benchmark Nikkei rose 33.01 points to 9,570.31, while the broader Topix inched up 0.1 percent to 850.69.
Market players warned that the Nikkei faces stiff resistance around 9,800 points, a mid-July peak it has several times tried and failed to break.
Support for the Nikkei was solid, however, at its 25-day moving average, now near 9,470 points, market players said, but they added that trade was likely to remain rangebound ahead of a string of U.S. economic indicators due out later this week, including jobs data on Friday.
"If the jobs figures aren't bad shares may well be able to stage a bit of a rebound, but at this stage investors appear to be neither notably long nor short on the Nikkei," said Nagayuki Yamagishi, a strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities.
The rush of Japanese quarterly earnings reports is past its peak but several key companies are set to announce later this week, including Toyota Motor Corp on Wednesday. - Reuters
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