Global stocks higher on renewed hopes on easing inflation

Beijing Global stock markets were mostly higher Tuesday after Wall Street drifted lower following its latest rally. London, Shanghai, Paris and Hong Kong gained. Tokyo declined. Wall Street futures rebounded. Oil prices rose. Wall Street’s benchmark S&P-500 index lost 0.4 per cent on Monday as tech stocks declined following a rapid run-up, while most other stocks advanced. The index is off this year’s high of two weeks ago but still up more than 20 per cent since mid-October. “The moderation from previous overbought technical conditions and extreme bullish sentiment continues,” Yeap Jun Rong of IG said in a report. In early trading, the FTSE in London rose 0.2 per cent to 7,471.46 while the DAX in Frankfurt lost 0.1 per cent to 15,813.06. The CAC 40 in Paris advanced 0.3 per cent to 7,184.35. On Wall Street, futures for the S and P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were 0.2 per cent higher. On Monday, the Dow lost less than 0.1 per cent. The Nasdaq composite, dominated by tech stocks, fell 1.2 per cent. In Asia, Shanghai Composite Index gained 1.2 per cent to 3,189.44 after China’s No. 2 leader, Premier Li Qiang, said economic growth has accelerated and can hit this year’s official 5per cent target. Li, speaking at a conference, gave no growth rate for the latest quarter but said it is faster than the previous quarter’s 4.5per cent.

The Nikkei-225 in Tokyo sank 0.5 per cent to 32,538.33 while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 1.9 per cent to 19,148.13. The Kospi in Seoul shed less than 0.1 per cent to 2,581.39.