China stocks pare declines after central bank holds rates; Taiwan stocks rise after elections

China stocks pared earlier declines on Monday, after the country’s central bank left its medium-term policy loans rate unchanged, while Taiwan’s main stock index rose after voters handed the ruling Democratic Progressive Party a third-straight presidential term. Mainland China’s CSI 300 index was 0.14% lower after falling about 0.5% at open, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was up slightly by 0.32%. The People’s Bank of China surprised markets and held the rate on some 995 billion yuan ($138.84 billion) worth of one-year medium-term lending facility (MLF) loans, keeping it unchanged at 2.50% The Taiwan Weighted index rose 0.2% after the ruling Democratic Progressive Party’s Lai Ching-te won the presidential election on Saturday, with more than 40% of the popular vote. Investors will be closely watching China’s fourth-quarter gross domestic numbers due on Wednesday, while Japan will release inflation figures for December on Friday. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 inched was flat. Japan’s Nikkei 225 continued its record-breaking run, with the index up 0.77%, while the Topix also touched new highs, gaining 0.87%. South Korea’s Kospi was trading flat, but the small-cap Kosdaq fell 0.98%. U.S. stock and bond markets will be closed on Monday for Martin Luther King Day. On Friday in the U.S., all three major indexes ended mixed as the fourth-quarter earnings season got under way, with four Big Banks posting downbeat results. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.31%, but the S&P 500 ended the day 0.08% higher and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite closed just above the flatline, gaining 0.02%.