Hong Kong's stock market rallied on Monday with the benchmark Hang Seng Index up 0.92 percent to close at 24,733.45 points, as auto and entertainment stocks performed well.
The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index climbed 1.01 percent to end at 8,893.48 points, while the Hang Seng Tech Index jumped 1.55 percent to close at 5,481.25 points.
However, Japan's market extended losses on Monday on the back of Wall Street data showing a weakening U.S. economy and domestic political concerns, according to China Global Television Network (CGTN) market analyst Timothy Pope.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 closed at 40,290.70, down 508.90 points, or 1.25 percent, from the previous trading day.
"The Hong Kong markets followed their mainland counterparts higher today. The Hang Seng advanced a little bit less than 1 percent, 0.9 percent higher. There too we saw automakers gaining on July sales numbers. Leapmotor and Xpeng were up, and BYD's Hong Kong shares touched a 4-month low. Tech stocks performed really well in Hong Kong too. There were gains for the games maker Netease and the video app maker Kuaishou, and a jump too for the restaurant chain operator Xiaocaiyuan after that firm forecast a rise in first half profits," said Pope.
"But over in Japan, things were not looking so good. The markets reopened from a long weekend with some heavy selling. The Nikkei 225 was off by one and a quarter percent. It was mirroring some falls on Wall Street after those disappointing U.S. jobs numbers that were released on Friday. Not only was July's job growth worse than expected but June's got revised down by quite a lot as well. And then there's the tariffs of course. Last week the Bank of Japan left interest rates unchanged but the bank's hikes aren't on pause anymore but that doesn't mean they’re going to be raising interest rates next month, that's the essence of their message. As was the fact that these tariffs are going to have an impact on company profits next year, and not a good one. Japan's economy is obviously export dependent and the BOJ said that we can expect to see a clearer picture of just how hard firms are going to be hit as we get further in the second half of the year. And there's some political uncertainty as well. There’s some speculation still swirling around that Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba might resign. He keeps denying it, but the fact that he has to keep on denying it kind of illustrates the pressure that has been mounting from within the ruling LDP," said Pope.
Asian stock markets mixed on Monday
