The Asian markets witnessed gains today, following a moderation in losses recorded on Wall Street. Tokyo led the upsurge, opening with an increase of over 5% after experiencing historic losses the previous day.
The Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong rose approximately 1.58% midway through Tuesday’s session, bouncing back from a significant drop of 13.2% on Monday—the steepest decline in nearly three decades.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei climbed 6.08% by midday, recovering from nearly an 8% fall on Monday. Meanwhile, the benchmark indices in Shanghai and Shenzhen, which had endured losses of 7.34% and 9.66% respectively, were slightly positive, up 0.91% and 0.42% respectively.
U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to impose additional tariffs of 50% on China if Beijing does not withdraw the tariffs imposed on American products. In response, China’s Ministry of Commerce stated today that the countermeasures announced last Friday are “completely legitimate.”
China’s state-owned Central Huijin Investment announced it has sufficient capacity to ensure stability in the nation’s capital markets and reaffirmed its decision to increase holdings in exchange-traded funds. This follows action taken on Monday when Hong Kong and mainland China stock markets saw sharp drops.
The Taiwan stock market opened in negative territory, with the Taiex index falling almost 3% shortly after opening, following the largest daily drop in the island’s history on Monday, with a 9.7% decrease.
In Indonesia, the main stock index, which had been inactive since March 28, fell more than 9% in the early minutes of trading, prompting a half-hour pause under new regulations introduced the previous day.
The Indonesian market was closed for a local holiday and didn’t trade last week or on Monday, when global markets faced substantial losses after the U.S. announced new tariffs.
Elsewhere in Southeast Asia, most stock markets opened with losses, led by Vietnam (-5.04%) and Thailand (-4.08%), both of which were closed on Monday, along with Singapore (-1.63%).
In contrast, the stock markets in the Philippines (+2.04%) and Malaysia (+0.3%) opened with gains.
