Hong Kong’s key index posts best day in a month

Hong Kong’s stock exchange operator, Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd., was up 4.7%.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index advanced 2.2%.

China’s central bank unintentionally sparked a surge in mainland and local stocks yesterday by publishing five-month-old comments of its governor.

Tokyo and Shanghai stocks were higher in the morning but other markets traded in the negative territory. “China has not finished up cleaning the market yet” following the summer selloff, said Francis Cheung, head of China and Hong strategy for brokerage CLSA.

This year, Chinese officials dug deep into their playbook for ways to stabilise the market, from pumping money into state-backed funds that bought blue chips to cracking down on short sellers and suspending initial public offerings. The stock has a weekly performance of -7.08 percent and is -4.11 percent year-to-date as of the recent close. Margin debt is also rising, volumes have stabilized and companies favoured by individual investors are leading the rebound.

Thursday’s gains came after the release of service sector data indicating recovery of the economy. South Korea’s Kospi index added 0.2%.

China launched a landmark “stock connect” between Shanghai and its special administrative region of Hong Kong in late 2014, opening up its closeted share market to the outside world and giving foreign investors access to Chinese companies not quoted elsewhere. (600030.SH), up 9.2%, GF Securities Co.

A weakening yen, down roughly 0.9% against the US dollar this week, helps make Japanese goods more competitive, and has lifted shares of exporters. Newfield Exploration lost 1.84 dollars, or 4.6%, to 38.30 dollars.

Shares of Japan Post Holdings, Japan Post Bank and Japan Post Insurance are up 27%, 18% and 69% from their respective premarket IPO prices. The company’s shares fell 3 percent in European trading.

Emerging-market stocks fell, with a benchmark index heading for the first loss in four days as the odds rose of a USA interest-rate increase before the end of the year.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is flat to lower, with investors likely waiting on the closely watched USA employment data later today.

“The meeting is read by investors as an indication that there will be even more economic collaboration”, Gerry Alfonso, director of trading at Shenwan Hongyuan Securities was cited as saying by MarketWatch. Honda is Takata’s biggest customer. Her remarks caused the U.S. dollar to strengthen and oil prices to decline sharply. The Caixin/Markit purchasing managers’ index for October rose to 52 from a 14-month low of 50.5 in September, based on a 100-point scale on which numbers below 50 indicate contraction. The 50-level distinguishes expansion from contraction in activity. President Xi Jinping said the country’s annual growth rate should be no less than 6.5 percent in the next five years in order to double its GDP and per capita income by 2020 on the basis of 2010. It was the strongest signal yet that the government expects the world’s second-largest economy to shift to a slower pace.