MARKETS: Trump and Xi’s call “very good”, says Trump – Asian stock markets on the rise

The main stock market indices in Asia were mostly on the rise on Monday.

Mainland China’s CSI 300 index was not far from eight at Finnish time, rising by 0.9 percent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng, on the other hand, rose by as much as 2.5 percent. Taiwan’s Taiex index was up 0.5 percent.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 index was up 1.2 percent, as was the broad Topix index. South Korea’s Kospi index was down 0.2 percent.

As far as China and its sphere of influence are concerned, the positive mood could have been brought by the president, among others Xi Jinpingin and the President of the United States who will take office on Monday Donald Trump’s Friday call.

Trump praised the call as “very good for both China and the United States”. He commented on the call on his own social media platform, Truth Social.

According to Bloomberg, Trump and Xi discussed trade relations and, among other things, the situation of the Tiktok short video service.

Although Trump’s rhetoric has been quite critical of China and even tougher tariffs are to be expected, in the last few days he has, among other things, defended Tiktok, which the United States has been banning. The social platform stopped operating in the US on Sunday, but is reportedly back up and running on Monday.

Xi is one of the foreign heads of state who received an invitation to Trump’s inauguration. He will not be there, but will send the vice president as his representative Han Zhengin.

In the Hang Seng index, many technology, e-commerce and pharmaceutical companies, among others, were on a solid rise JD.com (+7,4 %), Wuxi Apptec (+6,9 %), Meituan (+6.4 %) and Alibaba Group Holding (+5.8%). Among the strongest risers was also an electric car manufacturer BYDwhich was up 4.8 percent at the time of the review.

In both the Hang Seng index and the CSI 300, several energy and mining companies were among the decliners. Among other things, China’s state-owned oil and gas company CNOOC was down 2.6 percent.

In Tokyo, the price increase on Monday was probably supported by, among other things, the much stronger than expected development of factory orders towards the end of the year. Based on the forecast collected by Bloomberg, orders were expected to contract by 0.8 percent on a monthly basis, but they actually increased in November by 3.4 percent from the previous month.

Japan’s industrial production contracted in November by 2.2 percent from the previous month and 2.7 percent from a year ago. The pace slowed down a bit from the figures of the previous month.

In the Nikkei 225 index, the rise of industrial companies was solid, but the majority of shares were also rising in other sectors.

At the top of the risers was, for example, the FDA approval for its breast cancer drug in the United States Daiichi Sankyowhich was up 8.2 percent. The drug has been developed in cooperation with a London-listed company AstraZenecan with.

The US stock markets are closed on Monday due to a human rights activist Martin Luther King due to the day.