China gains on housing data, Europe up ahead of G20

FXstreet.com (Barcelona) - Many Asian equity indexes closed lower on Thursday, but Mainland China’s Shanghai Composite (+0.16%) gained on a stronger housing report, with the House Price Index rising from 2.1% to 3.6%. The China bird flu is causing some unrest as reports claim it has been spreading from human to human. Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average (-0.75%), Hong Kong’s Hang Seng (-0.13%) and South Korea’s Kospi (-1.19%) lost value, like most indexes in Asia.
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Futures for the German DAX 30 (+0.14%) and the French CAC 40 (+0.38%) are signaling a higher European opening as the G20 starts today for Finance Ministers and Central Bankers, ahead of the IMF meetings in Washington DC this weekend. “The main focus for markets will be if there are concerns about aggressive monetary easing by the Bank of Japan. Apparently only the Fed can do that. But so far there appears to be acceptance that the policy is targeting deflation, not the currency”, wrote TD Securities analysts. Also in Europe is Italy’s election of a new President by the Italian government that starts today. “It’s still unclear whether there has been enough agreement between the main parties to get sufficient votes for a single candidate to elect”, added the TD Securities analyst Annette Beacher.