Asia-Pacific indices posted a rise of up to 1.5%. The only exception was Japan's Nikkei 225, which was down slightly (0.04%). China's Shanghai Composite and Shenzhen Composite gained the most, rising by 0.81% and 0.96% respectively. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index gained 1.42%. Korea's KOSPI and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose almost equally, up by 0.28% and 0.26% respectively.
The July meeting of the US Federal Reserve will take place as early as Wednesday. It will clarify how much the interest rate will be increased. Most experts believe that the Fed will raise interest rates by 75 points. However, some analysts are also open to the possibility of a 100-point increase.
Traders are worried about a likely downturn in the global economy due to overly aggressive measures by central regulators.In the US, companies are publishing their corporate reports for the past quarter. During the current week, such major companies as Unilever, Coca-Cola, McDonald's, as well as Apple, Microsoft and Alphabet will release their reports.
The news of Alibaba Group Holding, Ltd.'s intention to become dual-primary listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange sent the company's stock price soaring by 6%. Its shares have also been traded on the New York Stock Exchange for eight years.
Of the Hang Seng Index components, shares of Sands China, Ltd., CNOOC, Ltd. and PetroChina Co., Ltd. were among the gainers, adding 4.3%, 3.2% and 3.1% respectively.
The decline in the Japanese index was driven by a decline in the share price of several companies. These included Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Ltd. which fell by 3.1%.
At the same time, other companies reported a rise in price. SoftBank Group, Corp. shares added 3.5%, while Mitsubishi Motors, Corp. rose by 2,3%. GDP in South Korea expanded 2.9% in the second quarter of 2022 over the same quarter of the previous year, according to preliminary data from the central bank. Also, economic growth for the second quarter was 0.7% higher than in the previous quarter of 2022.
Economic growth beat analysts' expectations of a 2.5% year-on-year and 0.4% quarter-on-quarter increase. For the first quarter of 2022, the country's economic growth was 3% year-on-year and 0.6% quarter-on-quarter, respectively.
Meanwhile, Korea's biggest companies are posting different results. Samsung Electronics, Co. is up by 1%, while Kia, Corp. dropped by 0.2%.
Among the participants in the Australian S&P/ASX 200, Zip, Co., Ltd. posted the biggest rise in share price, up 19.6% at once. The value of securities of BHP Group, Ltd. increased by 2.2% and Rio Tinto, Ltd. added 1.7%.
