(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) KUALA LUMPUR, May 13 (KUNA) -- Majority of markets in Asia were trending upwards with investors feeling positive about the recent agreement between the US and China on lowering tariffs after an increase in trade tension between the two economic powers.
Financial reports indicated that the Straits Time Index (STI) in Singapore open up by 1.53 percent on Monday while the MSCI Index for Asia, Pacific, and Japan also went up for the first time in six months.
Malaysia Bourse opened today's trading with strong purchasing transactions to cover losses prior to the US and China deal.
The main index in the Malaysian market was up by 14.89 percent, around one percent increase, due to investors' optimism.
The FBMKLCI index trading at its highest level since March.
The Nikki Index in Japan rose by two percent, the highest rate since February 25, a similar occurred to the TSEC Taiwan Technology.
In China, the market there saw a slight increase in early morning trading, while markets in Sydney, Shanghai, Seoul, Wellington, and Manila had varying degrees of gains.
The stock market in Hong Kong saw the slight decrease of over one percent after a hike of three percent the previous day.
According to the Financial Reports, markets in the US saw considerable increases with the S&P 500 going up by three percent, Nasdaq by 4.3 percent, Dow Jones Industrial Average by 2.8 percent.
The Chinese shares enlisted in the American market also rose by five percent.
A statement by the US Treasury Department said that tariffs on imports for China went down 30 percent from 145 percent, a similar statement came from the Chinese ministry of commerce, which announced that tariffs on American products would go down by 10 percent from 125 percent.
The deal would last for a period of 90 days to create an optimal atmosphere for further negotiations.
A Fitch agency report said that the average actual rate of the American tariffs went down by 13.1 percent compared to 22.8 percent before the deal was struck.
This is the highest rate since 1941 and exceeds the average of 2.3 percent since the end of 2024.
A number of analysts said that there were positive reactions to the deal; however, uncertainty remains for the period after the calmness especially with the fact that the two sides still impose some tariffs goods, a matter which needed to be resolved.
Investors are now focusing on the details of the agreement and the US inflation data, which would be issued later today, providing an indicator to where the Federal Reserve monetary police would be heading. (end)
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