Trade Talks News Lifts Hong Kong, Shanghai

Hong Kong stocks rose sharply on Monday morning, as investors tracked a positive lead from Wall Street on optimism over the China-US trade talks.

The Hang Seng Index rose 0.7 percent, to 29,224 by the break.

On the mainland, the Shanghai Composite Index soared 1.2 percent, to 3,059, while the Shenzhen Composite Index jumped 1.3 percent, to 1,663.

Most other Asian markets rose, as investors look ahead to the Federal Reserve's next policy meeting this week.

Tokyo went into the break 0.6 percent higher. Sydney edged up 0.2 percent and Singapore was 0.3 percent up while Seoul, Wellington, Taipei and Jakarta were also stronger.

The broad-based gains built on last week's advance as top officials from the world's biggest economies work on an agreement to end their long-running tariffs spat.

"The signing of a trade deal between the US and China would eliminate one major headwind for global markets and is currently the more probable outcome according to most analysts," said James Hughes, chief market analyst at AxiTrader

"There is more of an incentive for both superpowers to make a deal because it is economically in their best interests. This is especially the case given the growing US trade deficit due to falling exports to China." (AFP)

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