By Alex Ho
Investing.com - Asian markets were mixed on Monday morning, with Chinese stocks rebounding after data showed China’s producer prices gained 0.1% year-on-year, which was the first pickup since May 2019.
Factory-gate prices were previously expected to rise 0.1% from a year earlier, compared with a 0.5% drop in December.
Consumer prices also gained 5.4% year-on-year compared with an expected 4.9% rise and a 4.5% rise in December.
China’s Shanghai Composite inched up 0.2% by 9:30 PM ET (01:30 GMT), while the Shenzhen Component rose 0.7%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index lost 0.9%.
Developments on the coronavirus outbreak are continued to be monitored.
Death toll from the disease has officially overtaken that of the SARS outbreak almost two decades ago, as China reported an additional 89 deaths on Sunday, bringing the total number of deaths in the mainland to 908.
The National Health Commission also said on its website that 2,656 new cases were confirmed as of end Saturday. This brings the total number to 40,171 in mainland China.
The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) said it was offering the first batch of special re-lending funds on Monday to combat the virus outbreak.
Under the funding facility, nine major national banks and some local banks in ten provinces and cities are qualified for the special funding, according to PBOC Deputy Governor Liu Guoqiang.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 and South Korea’s KOSPI both slid 0.3%.
Down under, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 edged down 0.1%.
In the U.S., investors await the core consumer price index, which is due to release on Thursday this week. It is expected to increase to 0.2% in January, a faster pace than in December.