The South Korean car company Hyundai continued its advance on Monday. The company continued to benefit from reports of possible collaboration with the American technology company Apple. The stock exchange meters in the Asian region showed a mixed picture. Investors took back some gas after the strong first week of the New Year and processed the disappointing US job report. President-elect Joe Biden’s plans to release trillions of extra stimulus for the US economy offered some support to the stock market.
In Japan, where the authorities found a new variety of the coronavirus in four people entering the country from Brazil, investors had a long weekend. According to the Japanese Health Ministry, the mutated virus is partly similar to the British and South African variants.
The Kospi in Seoul saw a previous profit evaporate and recorded a fraction lower in the meantime. The South Korean Stock Exchange won almost 10 percent last week. Hyundai climbed 10 percent. The auto maker was already worth almost 20 percent more by Friday thanks to reports of cooperation in the field of self-driving electric cars with iPhone-maker Apple. Competitor Kia Motors gained 2 percent.
The main index in Shanghai dropped 0.7 percent, following further outbreaks of the coronavirus in, among others, the Chinese province of Hebei. Figures from the Chinese government also showed that producer prices in the country decreased by 0,4 percent in December. The decline was less than expected and the rate of the fall in prices was lowest since February last year. The industrial sector in China is thus showing a continued recovery of the crisis. Consumer prices increased by 0.2 percent last month.