Hong Kong stocks rise nearly 4%; China’s exports see first annual drop since May 2020

Hong Kong stocks led gains in the Asia-Pacific early Monday as China’s trade data fell far short of expectations, marking the first annual decline in exports since May 2020. Exports fell by 0.3% and imports also fell by 0.7% — a Reuters poll had forecasted a rise of 4.3% and 0.1% respectively. The Hang Seng index in Hong Kong gained 3.92% and the Hang Seng Tech index gained 5.37%. Mainland China’s Shanghai Composite rose 0.46% while the Shenzhen Component was 0.59% higher. The Nikkei 225 in Japan was 1.28% higher and the Topix also gained 1.08%. In South Korea, the Kospi was up 0.9%. The S&P/ASX 200 traded 0.52% higher in Australia. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was 1.58% higher. Chinese health officials renewed its stance of sticking by strict measures, which is seen to dampen market sentiment after seeing soaring risk appetite last Friday with speculation of “conditional” plans for a reopening. Apple suppliers in the region are also in focus as the company warned Covid restrictions in China are hurting iPhone production. U.S. and European markets rose on Friday on hopes the Federal Reserve would scale back future interest rate hikes following the latest jobs report, which marked the slowest pace of job gains since December 2020 despite stronger-than-expected growth.