Chinese shares closed higher amid positive sentiment. Financial services stocks led gains after the State Council, the country's top policy-making body, said it would promote the strengthening of leading securities companies. Founder Securities, China International Capital Corp. and China Galaxy Securities all rose 10%. Among individual gainers, Fuyao Glass Industry ended 10% higher after its 1Q earnings. Bank stocks led losses, with Bank of Jiangsu down 9.1% and Bank of Nanjing dropping 4.4%. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index ended 1.2% higher at 3088.64, the Shenzhen Composite Index rose 1.8% and the ChiNext Price Index gained 3.3%.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose 2.1% to close at 17651.15, extending earlier gains. Global investors have raised their allocation for China, while cutting exposure to Taiwan and India, says Maybank Investment Bank Securities (Hong Kong) head of retail research, Sonija Li, in a note. Property and tech-related stocks were among the advancers on the benchmark index. China Overseas Land & Investment added 8.2%, Longfor Group Holdings rose 12% and Alibaba Health Information Technology added 7.3%. Meanwhile, China Resources Power was 0.9% lower and China Shenhua Energy fell 0.5%. The Hang Seng Tech Index ended 4.6% higher at 3718.27.
Nikkei Stock Average rose 0.8% to close at 37934.76, extending gains after the Bank of Japan left its interest-rate target unchanged Friday following its first rate increase in 17 years in March. The central bank's measures of underlying inflation suggest that the case for further policy tightening is diminishing, economists at Capital Economics say in a note. Among the best performers on the benchmark index, Keyence Corp. climbed 7.8%, Nippon Sanso Holdings added 5.5%, and T&D Holdings was up 5.35%. The 10-year JGB yield was up 3.5bps at 0.925%.
India's benchmark Sensex closed 0.8% lower at 73730.16, weighed by losses in financial shares. Sentiment could have been damped by U.S. GDP data, which showed economic growth slowed to 1.6% in 1Q, missing economists' estimates. Among decliners, Bajaj Finance lost 7.7%, IndusInd Bank was 3.4% lower and Kotak Mahindra Bank shed 2.1%. Among gainers, Tech Mahindra closed up 7.3% after 4Q net profit rose 30% on quarter. Wipro rose 0.8% and ITC was 0.6% higher.