Analyst recaps Asian stock markets' Monday performance

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index ended almost flat on Monday while Japan's Nikkei 225 hit its highest close since late October, according to a market analyst.

The Hang Seng Index up 0.03 percent to close at 26,347.24 points on Monday and the benchmark Nikkei stock index, the 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average, ended up 1,493.32 points, or 2.97 percent, from last Tuesday to 51,832.80.

Timothy Pope, a market analyst for China Global Television Network (CGTN), recapped the stock markets' performance.

"It wasn't the first trading day of 2026 for Hong Kong markets. They resumed trade on Friday with a bit of a bang, and today the Hang Seng was fairly tepid, spending the afternoon flat. It closed pretty much flat. The big Chinese oil companies were also among the biggest losers in Hong Kong today. But we did see on Friday a big new listing for an AI company Biren [Technology], which was up 76 percent in its debut after making 700 million of its IPO and there were some great enthusiasm there. The company, though, ended today around two percent lower -- a little bit of pullback after that Thursday exuberance. Chinese automakers were down today in Hong Kong, BYD, Li Auto, Geely and Xiaomi [are] all among the top ten decliners. Now, this is despite the news we got over the weekend that BYD had stolen Tesla's crown as the biggest seller of all electric vehicles for the world for the whole year of 2025. It's the first time that BYD has been on top. But sales have started to slow in recent months. We saw December sales down eight percent compared to last year," he said.

"Over in Japan, we saw the Nikkei 225 surge by three percent to open 2026, with the index hitting its highest close since the end of October. It's above 51,800 points. It was also the biggest single-day jump since October as well. Japan's chip sector was largely mirroring what we saw on Wall Street on Friday, which was a very strong start to the year for all things: semiconductor, AI or data center-related. Tech investor SoftBank was up almost five percent. We saw a chip-making equipment heavyweight Tokyo Electron adding 7.6 percent. And the Japanese market also seemed to largely ignore the whole Venezuela thing, with the exception of a bit of a boost that it gave to Japanese defense stocks. The aerospace company IHI gaining around nine percent. But all in all, around the region today as far as equities were concerned, it was a relatively happy start to the New Year," said Pope.

Analyst recaps Asian stock markets' Monday performance

China's Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao outlined the key priorities of the 32nd Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Ministers Responsible for Trade Meeting, which opened on Friday in Suzhou, East China's Jiangsu province.

In an interview with CGTN ahead of the two-day meeting, Wang said free trade, digital cooperation and green economy are high on the agenda of the meeting.

"The key areas include advancing regional economic integration and the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific, supporting the World Trade Organization (WTO) in strengthening digital cooperation and developing green economy. At present, the international situation is marked by intertwined turbulence and chaos, with intensified geopolitical instability. The rise of unilateralism and protectionism poses serious challenges to the international economic and trade order, disrupting global and Asia-Pacific development. Against this backdrop, all parties have higher expectations for this trade ministers' meeting, hoping that it can build consensus and deliver outcomes," Wang said.

This year marks China's third time hosting the APEC meetings and the 35th anniversary of its membership.

By 2025, China had become the largest trading partner of 13 APEC economies. Trade between China and APEC economies reached 3.7 trillion U.S. dollars, accounting for 57.8 percent of China's total foreign trade.

China has signed 24 free trade agreements or economic and trade arrangements with 31 countries and regions, including 15 APEC economies. In recent years, China has also completed upgrades of free trade agreements with APEC economies such as Singapore and Peru.

The minister said that China has always been a firm supporter and an important contributor to APEC.

"We have actively shared our vast market and development opportunities with all parties. China's door to the world will only open wider and wider. Facing the common challenges, China will continue to fulfill its responsibilities as a major country, further deepen reform, expand high-standard opening-up, and continue to provide new opportunities for the Asia-Pacific region and the world with its new achievements in Chinese modernization," the minister said.

China's Commerce Minister outlines priorities for 32nd APEC trade ministers' meeting