Hong Kong Stocks Start The Week Strongly

Hong Kong stocks ended on Monday with healthy gains, in line with a rally across Asia and fresh vaccine hopes as a trial resumed at the weekend.

The Hang Seng Index climbed 0.6 percent, to 24,640.

On the mainland, the Shanghai Composite Index added 0.6 percent, to close at 3,278 while the Shenzhen Composite Index advanced 1.2 percent, to 2,189.

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

There was little reaction to the expected election of Yoshihide Suga as Japan's new prime minister.

Sydney both added 0.7 percent while Seoul jumped more than 1 percent, Jakarta surged more than 2 percent and Taipei put on 0.9 percent. Wellington, Mumbai and Manila were also up.

Analysts said attention is turning increasingly to the November presidential election, with Donald Trump battling to keep the White House against Joe Biden, who is leading in opinion polls.

"The focus on all the other danger points has meant the election has played a less meaningful role so far but, with the election just a few weeks away, something tells me it may soon move into the driver's seat," said AxiCorp's Stephen Innes.

"With election risk and the path to economic nirvana clouded by virus concerns, and while optimism remains keen on a vaccine to cure, it's bound to be another roller-coaster ride this week." (AFP)