The risk-on sentiment is yet again crippling back to the center stage.
Along with the approval of the long-awaited stimulus package miles away, the Asian market cheers.
In the latest charts, Nikkei 225 hit its highest settlement in 29 years. The surge was up by 1.96% for the day, which is a level for the first time since August of 1990.
Among the index’s biggest gainers are Uniqlo’s parent company, Fast Retailing, and investment giant Softbank. Both firms managed to hike by more than 3%, respectively.
Following the path of its counterpart, the Topix index also advanced by 1.36% in the positive trading day.
Across the Pacific, Australian shares managed to settle with gains in one of the earliest sessions following the Monday holiday. The S&P/ASX 200 hiked by 0.44% for the day.
Consequently, the MSCI’s Asia Pacific shares ex-Japan also gained by 0.47%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng traded in the green after a robust 1.05% for the session.
On the other hand, the index is likely to end the year with losses especially due to the on-going protests and the coronavirus pandemic.
Chinese shares did not perform well on the trading day. Shanghai Composite Index edged down by 0.33% while the Shenzhen Component fell by 0.34%.
Investors are currently reconsidering their bets on Sino bourses. Some are already fleeing with whatever they could take, with the latest government crackdown targeting Alibaba and others.
In an update, the country’s leading tech and e-commerce firms namely Alibaba, Tencent, and JD.com among others, collectively lost $200 billion in market capitalization.
This came after the administration decided to place the firms under probe amid the allegations of “anti-competitive” behavior.
DJIA Ends in Record-high
Such a decision came after the last-minute halt of Ant Group’s dual listing in Hong Kong and Shanghai, which is believed to have shoved off billions away from Jack Ma’s bank account.
Meanwhile, back in the United States, Wall Street’s major indices are elated by the news of increasing direct payments more than the approval itself.
The House of Representatives agreed to increase paychecks to individuals from $600 to $2,000. The legislation will now undergo the scrutiny of the GOP-led Senate.
With the news, the Nasdaq Composite edged higher by 0.74%, while the S&P 500 hiked by 0.87% for the day.
The day’s biggest gainer is the DJIA, which added 0.68% or 204 points after consequently trading optimistically in the past sessions.
The index closed to another all-time high and is set to end the year with gains never seen before.
