Asia-Pacific markets mostly gain as China stimulus measures come into effect, Hong Kong set to rise 3%
Asia-Pacific markets mostly rose Friday, with Chinese stocks likely set to cap off a week of gains on the back of Beijing's stimulus measures aimed at boosting the economy.
China will release its industrial profit data later in the day, this will be on a year-to-date basis through August and investors will have to wait for the next batch of data to assess the effects of Tuesday's stimulus measures.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index futures were at 20,575, higher than the HSI's last close of 19,924.58. Should the futures data prove accurate, this would mean a more than 3% climb for the index at open.
The People's Bank of China cut its 7-day reverse repurchase rate to 1.7% from 1.5%, its second cut in about three months. The short term rate was last lowered to 1.7% from 1.8% in July.
The central bank also slashed the reserve requirement ratio of financial institutions by 0.5 percentage points so as to "create a good monetary and financial environment for China's stable economic growth and high-quality development," according to a translated statement from the PBOC.
The bank added that the weighted average deposit reserve ratio of financial institutions will be about 6.6% after this reduction.
Source: CNBC
