Friday’s Chinese rate cut led to short-lived rally in Asian shares on Monday.
In early trade the Shanghai Composite rose nearly 1 percent, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rising 0.8 percent and stocks came close to wiping out their losses since China’s currency devaluation in August.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 managed to stay up throughout the day and closed up 0.65 percent, however, the tides turned during the afternoon with the Shanghai Composite closing up just 0.5% and Hang Seng index down 0.34% at 23,073.42.
In a surprise move on Friday, Beijing cut its one-year benchmark interest rate to 4.35% in order to loosen monetary policy and encourage China to hit a target growth rate of 7 percent; last week China said its economy grew at an annual pace of 6.9%.
Investors are awaiting news from the Chinese Communist party’s central committee meeting, which starts today, and will decide on a new five-year plan for China’s economy.
