By Gina Lee
Investing.com – Asian stocks posted modest gains on Monday morning as the Bank of Japan began its monetary policy meeting.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 led the gains, rising 2.02% by 10:52 PM ET (3:52 AM GMT). The Bank of Japan began its meeting on Monday ahead of the week-long Golden Week holiday. Investors are anticipating the central bank to announce policy moves to combat the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
China’s Shanghai Composite gained 0.61% and the Shenzhen Component was up 0.67%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was up by 1.49%.
South Korea’s KOSPI rose 1.47% and the ASX 200 gained 0.39%.
The Bank of Japan will be joined by the U.S. Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank in announcing policy decisions during the week. There are almost 3 million cases of COVID-19 globally according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
But some countries are slowly relaxing lockdown measures as the number of new cases climbs down.
Meanwhile, Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), Barclays (LON:BARC) and Samsung Electronics (KS:005930) are among the companies that will release their corporate earnings this week.
“This coming week will be huge from a macro data perspective and the extent to which the global economy has been floored by COVID-19,” Simon Ballard, chief economist at First Abu Dhabi Bank, told Bloomberg.
“Until we are clearly past the peak of the outbreak, on a global scale, and can feasibly deem the pathogen to be contained and there to be no meaningful risk of a second wave of infection, we believe a defensive investment strategy will remain the most appropriate.”