Defence stocks push Chinese market to 15-month high as North Korea ratchets up anti-US rhetoric
Hong Kong market sees biggest drop so far in April amid sell-off in the financial sector
China’s benchmark index closed at a 15-month high on Tuesday, boosted by gains in defence stocks amid an increasingly tense military standoff between North Korea and the US.
The Shanghai Composite Index underwent a “V-shaped” reversal to finish 0.6 per cent higher at 3,288.97, the best close since early January of 2016. The CSI 300 Index gained 0.4 per cent to 3,517.3, the Shenzhen Component Index increased 0.5 per cent to 10,655.8 and the Nasdaq-like ChiNext gained 0.3 per cent to 1,917.6.
In Shanghai, Avic Heavy Machinery surged 10 per cent, the maximum daily change allowed, to 17.67 yuan. Zhonghang Heibao also hit the limit, reaching 33.6 yuan.
North Navigation Control Technology soared 7.1 per cent to 18.99 yuan, its best level since August 2015.
The rally came after North Korea warned of “catastrophic consequences” to what it called “reckless acts of aggression” by Washington after a US aircraft carrier strike group was deployed to the Korean Peninsula.
“We will hold the US wholly accountable for the catastrophic consequences to be entailed by its outrageous actions,” North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency reported, citing a foreign ministry spokesman. “[North Korea] is ready to react to any mode of war desired by the US.”
Hong Kong’s stock market, meanwhile, saw its biggest drop so far in April, amid a sell-off in the financial sector after China’s insurance regulator became the subject of an official disciplinary probe.
