The new trading week on Asian stock exchanges started in many ways contradictory. While Tokyo and Shanghai posted modest gains, Hong Kong shares lost nearly one percent.
The main index of the Shanghai Stock Exchange recorded a positive zero on Monday. It firmed by only 2.61 points, which is 0.08 percent. This is probably still a reverberation of Friday’s good mood in European and US stocks, but at the same time it also reflected slightly negative expectations associated with economic developments in the world.
Reduction of the tax burden
Markets have barely reacted to reports that the Chinese government has decided to reduce the tax burden on small businesses to 20 percent from 25 percent. Perhaps investors were discouraged from making larger purchases by the information that the cut was to be only temporary and should last only until the end of 2024.
The impact of the decline
Shares in Tokyo recorded slightly stronger growth. The country’s main index, the Nikkei 224, firmed by 0.65 percent. Shares in Hong Kong headed in the opposite direction, having written off 0.89 percent. The same trend was also evident on the Mumbai Stock Exchange, India, where the main NSE Nifty 50 index lost almost one percent. The decline was mainly due to bank titles.
