Asia Higher as Traders Pore Over China Figures

Asia-Pacific markets traded mostly higher Monday, as investors assessed China’s manufacturing and industrial profit data.In Japan, the Nikkei 225 plummeted 366.18 points, or 0.9%, to 39,565.80. Shares of Japan’s chip-related companies dropped as Chinese AI startup DeepSeek’s free open-source large-language model threatens U.S. AI dominance. Advantest declined 8.6%. Tokyo Electron dropped 4.9%, while Renesas Electronics fell 1.24%. Softbank Group, which owns chip designer Arm, slid 8.3%.In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index gained 131.58 points, or 0.7%, to 20,197.77. CHINA China’s CSI 300 lost 15.78 points, or 0.4%, to 3,817,08China’s factory activity growth in January unexpectedly contracted, with the official purchasing managers’ index for January coming in at 49.1 versus Reuters’ estimates of 50.1. In December, China’s industrial profits jumped 11% from a year earlier, however, on a annual basis profits declined for a third straight year.China on Sunday introduced new initiatives to encourage the growth of index investment products in its latest attempt to support its struggling stock market. The China Securities Regulatory Commission aims to actively support the growth of equity and bond ETFs, amongst other measures.The move follows CSRC’s measures last Thursday to encourage large state-owned mutual funds and insurers to purchase more shares.In other marketsAustralian, Taiwan and South Korean markets were closed for holidays.In Singapore, the Straits Times index slipped 7.55 points, or 0.2%. to 3,796.71In New Zealand, the NZX 50 dipped 24.98 points, or 0.2%, to 12,999.72.