The Asian markets are targeted on the Chinese language economic system, Wall Avenue, currencies, and oil

SINGAPORE – Asia-Pacific inventories were higher on Monday as data releases showed that manufacturing activity in China grew more slowly in January.

South Korea’s Kospi was one of the biggest regional winners, up 2.23%. The Hong Kong Hang Seng index also posted robust gains, rising 1.91% in the afternoon.

Mainland China stocks rose as the Shanghai compound rose slightly while the Shenzhen component rose 0.821%.

A private survey found that Chinese manufacturing activity growth slowed in January and the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for the Caixin / Markit manufacturing sector is 51.5. That compares with what analysts had expected in a Reuters poll for 52.7.

Numbers above 50 in PMI readings represent expansion, while those below this level represent contraction.

The latest Caixin numbers came a day after China released its official January PMI, which stood at 51.3. In comparison, the value for December was 51.9. Analysts in a Reuters poll had expected the January figure to be 51.6.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 was up 1.23% while the Topix index was up 1.09%.

In Australia, the S & P / ASX 200 rose 0.81%. The shares of several Australian-listed miners rose in trading on Monday: Argent Minerals rose more than 40%, while Adriatic Metals rose 14% and South32 rose 3.54%. It did so when spot silver prices rose more than 5% to about $ 28.54 an ounce.

The broadest MSCI index for stocks in the Asia-Pacific region outside of Japan rose 1.4%.

Currencies and oil

The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback versus a basket of its peers, stood at 90.534 after rising recently from below 90.3.

The Japanese yen was trading at 104.68 per dollar after weakening below 104 against the greenback last week. The Australian dollar changed hands at $ 0.7652 after falling from levels above $ 0.768 last week.

In the oil markets, the international reference Brent crude oil futures rose 0.64% to USD 55.39 per barrel in the afternoon of trading hours in Asia. The US crude oil futures also gained 0.42% to $ 52.42 a barrel.