Japan's stock market rose on Monday amid low trading activity, reports Bloomberg.
The Chinese stock market finished the session lower: the drop in shares prices of developers offset the growth caused by data on higher profits of industrial enterprises in China in the first two months of 2016.
Japan's Nikkei 225 index rose 0.8%, China's Shanghai Composite fell 0.7%. The markets of Hong Kong and Australia were closed on Monday due to Easter holidays.
Turnover of the Japanese stock market on March 28 was 23% below the average of 30 days.
"Trading activity is very low, so even small changes of stock price cause fluctuations of the main index", - notes the analyst of Daiwa Securities Group, Yukio Ikehata.
The value of Sharp Corp. (T: 6753) shares surged by 4.4%. Sharp and Taiwanese Foxconn Technology Group said they are finishing an agreed transaction.
Shares of Japanese retailer Seven & i Holdings Co went up by 2%. The renowned investor Daniel Loeb, who owns shares in Seven & i, criticized the system of continuity in managing the company and encouraged it to reduce operations by separating a number of departments.
Shenzhen, after Shanghai, has introduced a number of measures to limit the growth of real estate prices, in particular, by increasing the initial payment to buy a home mortgage. The cost of residential real estate in Shenzhen in February increased by 57% compared with the same month of the previous year, in Shanghai it rose 21%.
Quotes of developers’ shares - Poly Real Estate, China Merchants Shekou Industrial Zone and Greenland Holdings - on Monday fell by at least 2.5%.
Meanwhile, shares of Chinese industrial companies rose: papers of Siasun Robot & Automation Co. rose in price by 0.4%, China International Marine Containers rose 1.1%, while the liquor maker Wuliangye Yibin share price jumped by 3.1%.
According to the National Statistics Administration of China, the profits of industrial sector companies in January-February increased by 4.8% compared to the same period last year, to 780.7 billion Yuan ($ 120 billion). An increase in profits was noted in 28 of 41 industry groups, the best performers being oil refining companies, as well as manufacturers of electrical equipment and food.