On Monday, China made an announcement about relaxing some of the rules regarding COVID-19 safety measures. The Chinese government announced that some of the virus testing rules had been relaxed.
However, the government made it clear that the relaxation had been introduced in some cities. These were the countries where they recorded the number of COVID-19 cases moving towards a decline.
It is a well-calculated decision by the Chinese government and the entire Asia-Pacific stock market has benefited from that.
China implemented strict COVID-19 safety measures throughout the country in the wake of the virus outbreak. The country was the first to fight the virus and it seems it will be the last.
There are too many cases being reported in China about the same virus and the government is trying its best to bring it under control. The health departments in China are also on their toes.
According to many, the past couple of years has been extremely punishing for the entire healthcare sector in China.
Even though things have relaxed around the world in terms of COVID, China is still fighting to control it. However, with the lockdowns and strict virus tests on a daily basis have devastated the locals.
In the past few weeks, multiple reports came in about the locals in China protesting against the strict COVID test rules.
It was mainly the working class who complained about it because they have to go through the same tests every day while commuting.
If the China government did not intervene and brought the situation under control, something far worse than protests could have taken place.
Asia-Pacific Markets Surged
Right after the relaxation announcement from the government, the share prices in the Asia-Pacific stock markets rose significantly. As a result, all major stock indexes scored huge gains on that particular day.
As the announcement came in, the Hang Seng Index recorded a 4.51% surge. The rally ended up pushing the Index’s points to a high of 19,518.29.
The Hang Seng Tech index demonstrated the best gains in the Monday trading session. It reportedly went up by 9.27% on that particular day.
From the Chinese mainland, the Shanghai Composite also recorded a 1.76% surge. It eventually gained points and rose to a high of 3,211.81.
The Shenzhen Component from the mainland of China also recorded a 0.92% surge, moving up to 11,323.35 points.
As the government of China made the announcement of reopening several of its business hubs in the country, the oil prices also went up. The data shows that oil prices went up by 2% in a matter of a day.
The rise in oil prices is due to OPEC+ deciding that they will stick with their policy of keeping oil production reduced. Then came the relaxation in lockdowns from China that also contributed to the same.
Other Major Asian Indexes
From the Asia-Pacific region, the Nikkei 225 Index from Japan has also recorded a surge. It has reportedly surged by 0.15% and has surged to 27,820.40 points.
The S&P/ASX 200 Index has also performed well experiencing a slight push. The particular index has risen 0.33% in the latest trading session moving up to 7,325.60 points.
The Kospi index from South Korea was not fortunate enough to gain from the upsurge. It ended up taking a 0.62% fall, moving down to 2,419.32 points.
US Stocks did not Perform Well
While the Asia-Pacific stocks performed really well, the US stock market went in the opposite direction. The Feds recently shared a jobs report that was stronger than expected.
Therefore, the share prices for the majority of the companies took a negative turn in the Friday trading session. Most of the stocks experienced a dip on that particular day.
However, the markets soon realized that the interest rate hikes in the future would be weaker. Therefore, the investments started to come back in favor of the US stocks.
Still, the markets did not perform well and mainly ended flat, thanks to the surge towards the end of the day.
