Stock market today: Asian shares are mixed after China rolls out market boosting measures
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Asian shares were mixed on Thursday after China rolled out more moves to try to boost its lagging stock markets by raising confidence that prices will rise. Officials in Beijing said pension funds and mutual funds would be required to increase purchases of shares, to guarantee that market value rises. Listed companies will also be encouraged to do more stock buybacks and raise dividends to improve shareholder returns, the head of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, Wu Qing told reporters.
Share prices in Shanghai bounced higher and were up 1% at 3,246.51 by midday. Hong Kong's Hang Seng edged up less than 0.1%, to 19,790.14. In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 index gained 0.6% to 39,891.10, helped by gains in technology shares, including those of SoftBank Group Corp. It is investing heavily in Stargate, a joint venture the White House has announced will start building out data centers and the electricity generation needed for the further development of artificial intelligence.
The partnership formed by Oracle, OpenAI and SoftBank is due to invest up to $500 billion. SoftBank's shares rose 3.7% on Thursday in Tokyo trading after jumping 11% the day before. Elsewhere in Asia, the S&P/ASX 200 in Australia fell 0.6% to 8,383.50, while the Kospi in Seoul lost 0.8% to 2,526.98.
