Stocks in Japan jumped the most in more than seven years on Wednesday, shaking off unease about slowing growth in China amid a tentative rebound in Chinese stocks. The Nikkei Stock Average jumped 7.7%, or 1343.43, to 18770.51, marking the benchmark’s biggest daily percentage gain since October 2008. In point terms, it was the biggest gain since January 1994. A broad rally for shares and currencies comes after markets in the region fell Tuesday on weak Chinese trade data that had stoked concerns about a further slowdown in the world’s second-largest economy. Japanese stocks hit a seven-month low Tuesday. But on Wednesday, investor sentiment toward China took a positive turn.
China’s finance ministry said Tuesday evening that the country would roll out a “more forceful” fiscal policy to stimulate economic growth, which it said faced downward pressure. The Ministry of Finance said in a statement that it would allocate more funds to support some infrastructure projects and implement tax cuts for small businesses. It also said it would accelerate the approval process for duty-free stores to boost construction. “Authorities [have] released a slew of policies aimed at rebuilding investor confidence by introducing mid-to-long term market-regulating measures,” said Jacky Zhang, an analyst at BOC International.
Optimism that China was taking steps to help its economy gave the Shanghai Composite Index a 1.7% boost and sent the Hang Seng Index 3% higher. “Any signal that [China’s] government is going to do more to support growth is going to help sentiment,” especially measures on top of monetary easing, added Bernard Aw, market analyst at IG. Beijing has approved nearly 200 billion yuan of infrastructure projects since July, according to an article by state-owned Securities Daily Wednesday.