SHARES ARE PROPPED UP

A MOVE HIGHER in major Asian markets as they returned from the Lunar New Year holiday propped up emerging-market shares yesterday, with China stocks in the lead as new US-China trade talks began before higher-level talks later in the week. Mainland China stocks rose more than 1 percent each as they caught up after a week’s holiday, while those in Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan rose 0.2 to 0.7 percent. “It is a delayed reaction to the gains we had in the US equities for the last couple of weeks,” said Koon Chow, an emerging-market macro and FX strategist with UBP, pointing also to some local expectation from the US-China trade talks. A new round of trade talks began in Beijing yesterday, with markets awaiting talks led by US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin later this week. They comes after US President Donald Trump said he would not meet with his Chinese counterpart before the March 1 deadline set by the two countries to resolve the trade dispute. | Reuters