China’s mainland shares posted modest gains as a central bank lending rate cut boosted real estate stocks. The CSI 300, which tracks the 300 top stocks on the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges, rose 0.25%. Its housing subset, the CSI 300 Real Estate Index, gained 1.02%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 1.57% despite a rise in real estate shares. Several major Chinese companies saw significant pre-market gains in the U.S. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd rose by 3.23%, while its rival PDD Holdings Inc. increased by 5.38%.
In the electric vehicle sector, Nio Inc and Li Auto Inc saw increases of 5.44% and 6.48%, respectively. China’s GDP grew by 4.6% year-over-year in the third quarter, surpassing expectations from a Reuters poll. This marks the slowest growth rate since mid-last year, moving further from Beijing’s 5% annual target.
Retail sales in September grew by 3.2% year-on-year, exceeding forecasts. Industrial output rose by 5.4%, also surpassing expectations. However, house prices fell by 5.8% year-over-year in September, a larger decline than the 5.3% drop in August.
China’s Q3 economic outlook
The recent economic data comes amid China’s efforts to stave off a potential economic downturn. In late September, China announced measures including a 50 basis-point cut to the mandatory reserve ratio and a reduction in the benchmark policy rate by 0.2 percentage points.
The People’s Bank of China also reduced rates on existing mortgages and lowered the minimum down payment on second homes. Despite these efforts, investor sentiment remained cautious. In Japan, the Nikkei 225 slipped 0.07% as a rise in technology stocks couldn’t overcome broader drops in the financial and industrial sectors.
Factory automation tech firm Keyence and chip-testing equipment maker Advantest rose 1.66% and 2.67%, respectively. European stocks moved into positive territory early Monday as oil and gas sector shares led the way, with all posting gains of more than 1% in morning trading. Shares in JDE Peet’s surged over 15% after the beverage company announced that executive Rafael Oliveira would be its next CEO.
German conglomerate JAB said it would acquire Mondelez’s share in JDE Peet’s in a $2.4 billion deal. The Stoxx Europe 600 was flat, while the FTSE 100 rose 0.34% around 10:30 a.m. CET. U.S. markets were mixed in premarket trading Monday after hitting records on Friday.
Investors will be paying special attention to earnings on Wednesday, especially from notable companies like Tesla and Boeing. They will look for signs of optimism at the EV giant after its robotaxi reveal underwhelmed investors and search for any signs of hope at the embattled planemaker.
