Beijing Central Business District, mix of offices and apartments
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Asia-Pacific markets rose Monday, as investors assessed escalating Israel-Iran tensions and parsed a slew of data from China.
Oil prices jumped as Israel and Iran exchanged strikes, while gold prices rallied as investors sought refuge in the safe-haven metal. The attacks continued over the weekend.
Christian Gattiker, head of Research at Julius Baer, said that what’s important for investors is “not just whether the conflict continues, but whether it intensifies in scope or duration.”
The “market is unlikely to reprice beyond the initial risk premium,” without a rapid broadening, he explained. “Until then, it remains a tactical rather than strategic event, offering a good excuse for traders to take profits and reassess positioning,” Gattiker wrote in a Monday note.
China released its retail sales and industrial output figures for May. Retails sales jumped 6.4% from the previous year, while industrial output growth slowed to 5.8% year on year.
Mainland China’s CSI 300 index ended the day 0.25% higher at 3,873.80, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index added 0.7% to 24,060.99.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 climbed 1.26% to end the day at 38,311.33, while the broader Topix index advanced 0.75% to 2,777.13.
In South Korea, the Kospi index surged 1.8% to close at 2,946.66, while the small-cap Kosdaq increased by 1.09% to 777.26.
Over in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 ended the day flat at 8,548.40.
Meanwhile, India’s Nifty 50 rose 0.92%, while the BSE Sensex index was up 0.84% as at 1.50 p.m. local time.
— CNBC’s Pia Singh and Darla Mercado contributed to this report.
