By Monday afternoon, major markets of Asia-Pacific were in positive territory, as the United States and China seemed nearer to finalizing a phase one of the trade deal. The composite of Shanghai was up around 0.85% to close at 2,980.05, whereas the Shenzhen composite jumped about 1.53% to around 1,657.38. Hang Seng index of Hong Kong bounced 0.76% in the final trade hour. The Japanese Nikkei 225 gained 0.30% to about 22,867.27, and Kospi of South Korea climbed 0.27% to close at 2,093.60. S&P/ASX 200 of Australia traded flat to close at around 6,740.70. Main miners increased by the close: Fortescue Metals bounced 2.15%, BHP Billiton jumped 1.12% while Rio Tinto got some earlier gains to trade above 0.48%.

Markets in Malaysia, Singapore, New Zealand, and India were closed for holidays. Global MSCI’s largest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was above 0.44%.

HSBC, the largest lender of Europe, reported 3rd-quarter pre-tax profits that dropped eighteen percent year-on-year to 4.8 billion dollars in the quarter that ended Sep. Still, the bank stated its before-tax profit in Asia bounced four percent from the previous year, observing a resilient performance in Hong Kong.

Major profits of HSBC based in Hong Kong

Most of the profits HSBC earns from Hong Kong, that hit by unrest for months. The city accounted for over half the pre-tax profits of the bank in the first half of 2019. The shares of HSBC fell 2.76% in the afternoon. AIA, Hong Kong-based guarantor that also shared results on Monday, expressed in a statement it already affected by a challenging operating environment, specifically in relation to recent events in Hong Kong. Its worth of new business, which examine projected profits from new premiums, was over one percent to $980 million in three months to Sep 30. Its stock raised 3.61% by the afternoon.

According to a Reuters report, Paul Chan, Financial Secretary of the city, said in a Sunday blog post that Hong Kong is now in recession, and it really difficult to achieve an original estimation of the government of zero percent to one percent yearly growth made before the protests. Chan added that preliminary forecast for 3rd-quarter growth on Thursday would demonstrate two successive quarters of reduction, the technical definition of a recession.

Hopes developed for Finalization US-China deal of Phase one

On the United States-China trade front, the Office of the United States Trade Representative said Friday the countries had made progress on particular issues, and both sides are near to finalizing some segments of the agreement. According to a report of Reuters, Commerce Ministry of China said on Saturday that the two sides agreed to address the main issues accurately. It added, both countries long-established that the United States will import cooked poultry from China, whereas China will lift a ban on the United States poultry. The President of the United States, Donald Trump, announced earlier this month that both states reached a considerable phase one deal in an effort to end the trade dispute that produced several rounds of tariffs on each other’s goods worth of hundreds of billions of dollars.

National Australia Bank’s head of foreign exchange strategy, Ray Attrill stated in a Monday note that still, it not cleared that either both sides settled that even if the planned Dec 15 tariff increases won’t go forward if Phase-one settled, if there will be any wind back of the raised tariffs imposed on Sep 1, something China said to be demanding toward the last weekend. Still, they doubt the United States ready to concede on.

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