TOKYO, June 23 (Reuters): Asian stocks and the Australian dollar rose on Monday as upbeat news from China's factory sector and fresh highs on Wall Street fuelled appetites for riskier assets, while crude oil held near a nine-month high as fighting in Iraq intensified.
Financial spread betters saw a marginally higher open for Europe markets with geopolitical risks tempering economic optimism. Britain's FTSE was seen opening up to 0.1 per cent higher, Germany's DAX up 0.15 per cent and France's CAC 0.1 per cent higher.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan climbed 0.5 per cent.
Gains by China shares were tepid with a liquidity squeeze resulting from new initial public offerings (IPOs) expected to linger through the month.
Tokyo's Nikkei was up 0.2 per cent after some of its earlier gains were erased.
The MSCI index hit intraday highs after the June HSBC/Markit Flash China PMI showed China's factory sector activity expanded for the first time in six months in June, offering new signs the economy is stabilising thanks to Beijing's measures to shore up growth.
"This month's improvement is consistent with data suggesting that the authorities' mini-stimulus is filtering through to the real economy," said Qu Hongbin, chief economist for China at HSBC, referring to a series of measures announced by the government in recent months to spur activity.
"We expect policymakers to continue their current path of accommodative policy stance until the recovery is sustained," he added.
Upbeat China PMI boosts Asian equities
FE Team | Published: June 24, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
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