Asian stocks Up as Investors Watch BOJ meeting

By Gina Lee

Investing.com – Asian stocks posted modest gains on Monday morning as the Bank of Japan began its monetary policy meeting.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 led the gains as it rose 2.02% by 10:52 PM ET (3:52 AM GMT). The Bank of Japan began its meeting on Monday ahead of the week-long Golden Week holiday. Investors are anticipating the central bank to announce policy moves to combat the COVID-19 pandemic’s economic impact.

China’s Shanghai Composite gained 0.61% and the Shenzhen Component was up 0.67%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was up by 1.49%.

South Korea’s KOSPI rose 1.47% and the ASX 200 gained 0.39%.

The Bank of Japan will be joined by the U.S. Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank in announcing policy decisions during the week as Johns Hopkins University data said that there are almost 3 million global cases as of April 27. But some countries are slowly relaxing their lockdown measures as their number of new cases climbs down.

Meanwhile, Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), Barclays (LON:BARC) and Samsung Electronics (KS:005930) are among the companies releasing will their corporate earnings this week.

“This coming week will be huge from a macro data perspective and the extent to which the global economy has been floored by Covid-19,” Simon Ballard, chief economist at First Abu Dhabi Bank, told Bloomberg.

“Until we are clearly past the peak of the outbreak, on a global scale, and can feasibly deem the pathogen to be contained and there to be no meaningful risk of a second wave of infection, we believe a defensive investment strategy will remain the most appropriate.”

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