South Korea stocks surge more than 7% as China keeps loan prime rate unchanged

Stocks in Asia Pacific rose on Friday as China kept its loan prime rates unchanged. South Korean stocks, which saw heavy losses on Thursday, jumped by the close as the Kospi advanced 7.44% to 1,566.15 while the Kosdaq index surged 9.2% to 467.75. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index also jumped 3.97%, as of its final hour of trading. Mainland Chinese stocks also edged higher on the day, with the Shanghai composite 0.47% higher while the Shenzhen composite added 0.166%. Over in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.7% to close at 4,816.60, with the heavily weighted financial subindex up 3.56%.

In Southeast Asia, the Straits Times Index in Singapore gained 1.3% in afternoon trade. Overall, the MSCI Asia ex-Japan index gained 4.32%. Markets in Japan were closed on Friday for a holiday. China’s loan prime rates (LPR) on Friday were kept unchanged from their February levels, with both the 1-year and 5-year LPR left steady at 4.05% and 4.75%, respectively.

Following the rates release, the onshore Chinese yuan strengthened against the greenback at 7.0964 per dollar. The offshore yuan also saw gains at 7.1292 per dollar. Meanwhile, developments on the ongoing global coronavirus outbreak continued to be watched, with markets seeing wild moves in recent days as investors continue to weigh the disease’s potential economic impact.

On Friday, Australia’s banks announced that loan repayments for small businesses affected by the coronavirus outbreak would be deferred for six months. In a release announcing the small business relief package, Australian Banking Association CEO Anna Bligh said the move will apply to more than 100 billion Australian dollars ($58.8 billion) worth of existing small business loans and could put as much as 8 billion Australian dollars ($4.7 billion) “back into the pockets of small businesses.”

South Korea stocks surge more than 7% as China keeps loan prime rate unchanged, CNBC, Mar 20