HK, Shanghai Rise As Asian Markets Rally

Hong Kong shares finished Monday's morning session on a positive note, in line with a rally across Asia, with investors cheered by fresh vaccine hopes.

The Hang Seng Index added 0.7 percent, to 24,666.

On the mainland, the Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.4 percent, to 3,273 while the Shenzhen Composite Index soared 1.2 percent, to 2,190.

Across Asia, markets pushed higher as investors creep back after a recent sell-off with traders looking ahead to the Federal Reserve's latest policy meeting.

Tokyo rallied 0.7 percent thanks to a surge of nearly 10 percent in SoftBank after it said Monday it is to sell British chip designer Arm to NVIDIA of the US for up to US$40 billion, in what would be one of the biggest purchases in the world this year.

Sydney put on 0.5 percent while Seoul and Jakarta each jumped more than 1 percent each, while Taipei and Wellington were also up.

But Simon Ballard, at First Abu Dhabi Bank, warned: "With no clear assured path to economic recovery and release from the grips of coronavirus, and with the added geopolitical risks of the fast-approaching US presidential election and then the Brexit deadline at year-end, we expect broad market sentiment to remain fragile for the foreseeable future." (AFP)

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