CBN丨Asian shares rally ahead of China-US trade talks

2025年06月09日 20:21   21世紀(jì)經(jīng)濟(jì)報(bào)道 21財(cái)經(jīng)APP   李瑩亮

Hi everyone. I’m Stephanie LI.

Coming up on today’s program

  • Asian stocks gained on Monday as investors pin hope on China-US trade talks in London;
  • China’s foreign trade increased 2.5% in Jan-May.

Here’s what you need to know about China in the past 24 hours

Stock markets across Asia climbed Monday, helped by the renewed China-US trade talks in London.

China's A-share market opened on a positive note, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index once reclaiming the 3,400-point mark in the morning session. Hong Kong’s benchmark Hang Seng Index also surpassed the 24,000 points in early tradings, hitting a new high in over two months.

The Shanghai Composite closed 0.4 percent higher today, while the Shenzhen Component gained 0.65 percent. The ChiNext Index surged by 1.1 percent. The Hang Seng Index ended up 1.6 percent and the Tech Index rallied 2.8 percent.

The trading volume of the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets exceeded 1.29 trillion yuan, an increase of more than 134 billion yuan compared to the previous trading day.

Sectors such as pharmaceuticals, rare-earth magnets, securities, defense, and solid-state batteries led the market gains, with nearly 4,100 listed companies rising across the Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Beijing stock exchanges.

As for the other Asian markets, Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 advanced 1.1 percent, while the broader Topix index rose 0.6 percent. In South Korea, the Kospi index climbed 1.9 percent. 

Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson announced on Saturday that Chinese Vice-Premier He Lifeng would visit the UK from yesterday to June 13 at the invitation of the local government, Xinhua reported yesterday. A diplomatic schedule published by the foreign ministry showed that the Chinese side will hold the first meeting of the economic and trade consultation mechanism with the US side in London.

  • China's foreign trade has maintained resilience and stable growth since the beginning of this year despite challenges from external environment, official data showed on Monday. Total goods imports and exports in yuan-denominated terms expanded 2.5 percent year-on-year to 17.94 trillion yuan in first five months this year, according to the General Administration of Customs (GAC). Between January and May, the country's total exports rose 7.2 percent year-on-year to 10.67 trillion yuan, while imports slid 3.8 percent year-on-year to 7.27 trillion yuan. Meanwhile, the GAC said over 73,000 foreign-invested firms in China were involved in export and import activities in the first five months, with their combined trade volume rising 2.3 percent to 5.21 trillion yuan, accounting for 29 percent of the country's total.
  • China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, edged down in May, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Monday. The CPI dropped by 0.1 percent year-on-year last month, matching the decline rate seen in April. NBS attributed the year-on-year CPI decrease primarily to a 6.1-percent drop in energy prices. The NBS data also showed the country’s producer price index (PPI), which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, fell by 3.3 percent year-on-year in May, with the decline widening by 0.6 percentage points from April.

GBA express

  • The number of visitors to Hong Kong has continued to increase, as the city attracted about 20 million tourist trips in the first five months of this year, of which Chinese mainland tourists accounted for about three-quarters, with about 10-percent growth year-on-year. Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po wrote in an official post on Sunday that the growth to a series of activities with different themes that were held in Hong Kong since the beginning of this year has brought a continuous increase in the number of tourists visiting Hong Kong. It is estimated that the events held in Hong Kong in the first half of this year will attract about 840,000 tourists to participate, and bring HKD3.3 billion in consumption and HKD1.8 billion in economic added value.
  • The People's Bank of China and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority are promoting the interconnectivity between the quick payment systems of the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong, with some services likely to be launched mid this year, media reported yesterday. The pair signed an MOU on cross-border payment interconnectivity last August.
  • Macao launched a PopMart tourism event to attract global fans, bringing the Chinese toy maker’s most popular character lines, including Baby Molly, Crybaby Dimoo, and Labubu, to four iconic locations across the SAR, from June 6 to September 21. A seven-meter-high Labubu was unveiled.
  • The two-day International Science, Technology and Innovation Forum of the Boao Forum for Asia 2025 Hong Kong Conference ended June 7, attracting over 800 government officials, representatives from international organizations, entrepreneurs, and experts from over 20 countries and regions to focus on global tech innovations and sci-tech governance.

Industry and company news

  • Pop Mart's founder and Chairman Wang Ning had a net worth of USD20.3 billion yesterday, surpassing Muyuan Foods' founder Qin Yinglin to become the richest person in China's Henan province, according to the Forbes Real Time Billionaires List. Wang's wealth growth was fueled by Labubu's global craze.
  • Boeing resumed aircraft deliveries to China as a Boeing 737 MAX took off from Seattle, the US, headed to China on Saturday. This aircraft was made at Boeing's Zhoushan factory in China but was sent back to the US in April.
  • Alibaba’s open-source AI model Qwen3 has garnered 12.5 million downloads globally in just one month, media reported today. On major LLM platforms, such as Hugging Face, ModelScope, and Ollama, each version of Qwen3 has surpassed one million downloads.
  • Shares of China Rare Earth Holdings closed up 60 percent in Hong Kong today after China approved some export license applications for rare earth-related items amid rising global demand for medium and heavy rare earth elements, fueled by the robotics, NEV, and other industries.
  • China has added 19 bases to its cold-chain logistics network, bringing the total to 105 distribution centers for ultra-low temperature delivery, which are now under construction, CCTV News reported.
  • China's forex reserves stood at USD3.2853 trillion at the end of May, up from USD3.2817 trillion a month earlier, data from the State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed. Gold reserves topped 73.83 million ounces.
  • Starbucks will launch a new summer promotion for its three major non-coffee beverage categories -- Frappuccino, Shaken Iced Tea, and Tea Latte -- in the Chinese market from tomorrow. The average price cut for a grande-sized drink will be around 5 yuan.

Asia-Pacific highlights

  • Thailand's durian exports to China have enjoyed stable growth thanks to the China-Laos Railway. So far this year, China's import volume of Thai durian and other tropical fruits through the Mohan border checkpoint in Southwest China's Yunnan Province has increased by 25 percent from the same period last year, according to China State Railway Group on Sunday.

Executive Editor: Sonia YU

Editor: LI Yanxia

Host: Stephanie LI

Writer: Stephanie LI

Sound Editor: Stephanie LI

Graphic Designer: ZHENG Wenjing, LIAO Yuanni

Produced by 21st Century Business Herald Dept. of Overseas News.

Presented by SFC

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