Chinese stocks hold gains, Japan’s Nikkei up

Chinese stocks managed to maintain their weekly gains on Thursday as Beijing implemented a series of measures to boost market sentiment ahead of a week-long holiday, Reuters reported on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Japan’s Nikkei was up by 2.1 per cent to close at its highest level in 34 years, driven by a 10 per cent increase in SoftBank Group after key holding Arm forecasted sales and profit that exceeded market expectations.

The Shanghai composite index rose one per cent and is up 4.7 per cent for the week, the largest gain since early November. China’s blue-chips index was 0.2 per cent higher and is on track for a weekly gain of 5.4 per cent.

The Japanese yen declined 0.3 per cent to 148.63 per dollar, and 10-year yields eased from early highs to 0.695 per cent after Bank of Japan Deputy Governor Shinichi Uchida stated that the central bank was unlikely to aggressively raise interest rates.

It is noteworthy that China’s consumer price index (CPI) decreased 0.8 per cent in January year-on-year, the largest drop since 2009. However, on a monthly basis, CPI rose 0.3 per cent, an improvement from the previous month.