Investing.com– Most Asian stocks rose on Monday with investors looking to more cues on fiscal stimulus from a meeting of China’s top policymakers this week, although risk aversion before the U.S. elections kept gains limited.
Regional trading volumes were also low on account of a market holiday in Japan. Nikkei 225 futures fell 0.2%.
Asian markets took some positive cues from a softer-than-expected U.S. nonfarm payrolls reading on Friday, which furthered bets that a cooling labor market will bring more interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve.
U.S. stock steadied in Asian trade, with focus also turning to an upcoming Fed meeting this week.
Chinese stocks upbeat as NPC meeting begins
China’s Shanghai Shenzhen CSI 300 and Shanghai Composite indexes rose 0.5% and 0.3%, respectively, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index added 0.7%.
The National People’s Congress’ Standing Committee begins a four-day meeting on Monday, where the body is widely expected to outline more fiscal spending.
Recent reports said the body could approve an additional $1.4 trillion in new debt over the coming years to boost growth, especially as the Chinese economy grapples with persistent deflation and a prolonged property market crash.
The NPC meeting is likely to provide more cues on the implementation and scale of fiscal support outlined by Beijing over the past month. While Chinese stocks had initially clocked strong gains on optimism over the new measures, they trimmed a bulk of these gains on doubts over the timing and scale of the stimulus.
