Hong Kong's stock market ended higher Monday with the benchmark Hang Seng Index up 0.68 percent to close at 25,562.13 points.
The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index rose 0.29 percent to end at 9,177.15 points, while the Hang Seng Tech Index fell 0.24 percent to close at 5,664.02 points.
Japan's benchmark Nikkei stock index, the 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average, ended down 457.96 points at 40,998.27.
Timothy Pope, a market analyst, recapped stock markets' performance of Hong Kong on Monday.
"After the EU-U.S. trade agreement, attention around the region will be divided between the China-U.S. trade talks and that really crowded monetary policy calendar this week. Both the U.S. Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan will be meeting to decide on what to do about (interest) rates. The broad expectation is that both central banks will choose to do nothing this month. But while the latest U.S. inflation data makes a Fed rate cut look unlikely, Thursday we will get to see how the BOJ views the recent Japan-U.S. trade deal, and what it thinks about that deal's prospects for lifting the Japanese economy and what impact it's likely to have on Japanese exports," he said.
"With all that in mind, today the Hang Seng was up 0.7 percent, again largely thanks to a rally for Chinese insurance firms. This one's a bit arcane but the Insurance Association of China has cut the reference rate for life insurance products, which affects what insurers charge for premiums. A cut might mean cheaper premiums and more sales for big insurers. Ping An Insurance Group was one of the big beneficiaries of that today, up 3.4 percent. But we also had a number of other firms dipping as they flag weaker first-half forecasts. We got a number of first-half forecasts in for the Hong Kong markets today. Those included China Resources Beverage group, medicine maker China TCM, both of those flagged a weaker first half, but not China Tobacco, which says new regulations haven't dented cigarette sales in China," he continued.
"Over in Japan the Nikkei 225 extended its losses today, it was down 1.1 percent. Traders there say there's some concern in the markets that the next round of corporate earnings that we see in Japan might not justify the current levels for Japanese stocks. They are quite high, the Nikkei now just below 4,100 points, and the market's talking about 4,500 as the next milestone for the Nikkei. So profit taking was their response to that feeling today and with an interest rate hike this week from the Bank of Japan looking pretty unlikely, Japanese banking stocks were trading lower -- the sector as a whole down almost 3 percent today, making it the worst sub-index in Tokyo," Pope said.
Analyst recaps Asian stock markets' performance on Monday
