Asian Markets Mixed; Japan Rises As PM Abe Secures “Super Majority” In Parliament

Asian markets were mixed on Monday, with Japanese stocks leading gains as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's coalition reached a “super majority” on Sunday’s parliamentary election.

Australia ASX -11.40 -0.19% 5,957.20 CLOSED

Shanghai Comp +2.05 +0.06% 3,380.70 CLOSED

Hang Seng Index -164.76 -0.58% 28,322.48 OPEN

Nikkei 225 +239.01 +1.11% 21,696.65 CLOSED

TSEC 50 Index +6.33 +0.06% 10,735.21 CLOSED

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 rose nearly 0.9 percent, adding to a record streak of fifteen sessions following Abe’s triumph, which means further monetary stimulus is on the way.

With the Liberal Democratic coalition securing a two-thirds majority in Parliament, investors are expected to see a push for “Abenomics” and a revision to the country’s constitution.

“I want to put all my efforts into delivering results with honesty and humility,” Abe said. While his policies were able to strengthen Japan’s labour market to its strongest level since mid 1970’s, quantitative easing could not significantly increase inflation.

The leader of the world’s third largest economy also promised to take a stronger position against the repetitive threats from Pyongyang. North Korea has launched two ballistic missiles that flew over Japan’s northern zone in recent months, rising geopolitical tensions in the region.

Stocks in Asia followed a strong lead from the United States on Friday, with Wall Street’s three major indexes growing on the back of positive speculation concerning Trump’s tax reform.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended at 23,328.63, while the S&P 500 added 0.51 percent and the Nasdaq Composite marked a 0.36 percent gain to 6629.05.

American stocks were cheered as the US Senate passed a Republican-backed budget that allows them to move forward with tax reductions without reaching consensus with Democrats.

On the data front, participants saw existing home sales increase 0.7 percent to a seasonally adjusted 5.39m units y/y in September, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Fort Financial Services