Asian stocks open in green amid focus on US-China trade talks

Asian stocks opened the last session in the week on green, easing the widened losses that occured this week, which may reflect the worst weekly performance since December, coinciding with the continuing round of trade talks being held in Washington between the Chinese delegation led by Vice Premier of the People's Republic of China, Liu He, and Secretary of Treasury, Steven Mnuchin, and United States Trade Representative, Robert Lighthizer, who headed the US trade delegation that visited Beijing last week.

The trade talks between the world's two largest economies are expected to end later in the day, with the increase of US tariffs on the China's imports is being implemented on Chinese goods worth $200 billion, from 10% to 25%, amid China's pledge to react if it is activated. This comes hours after US President, Donald Trump, announced that he received a "good speech" from his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, asking for a telephone conversation to discuss the trade negotiations between the two countries.

On the other hand, we have followed the Reserve Bank of Australia's release of the monetary policy statement just hours after the Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, Philip Lowe, and the central bank's monetary policy makers agreed to keep short-term benchmark interest rates at 1.50% for the 31st consecutive meeting earlier this week. Which came in contrast to analysts' expectations of a 25 basis point cut to 1.25%. Following the economic data that we followed on the Japanese economy, which showed an accelerated growth in household spending index and a widened decline in average wages during March.

Japanese stocks witnessed a rise during today's trading session, with the broader Topix index rising by 0.84% to gain (13.05 point) up to 1,563.76, while Nikkei 225 index also rose by 0.71% (151.12 points) up to 21,553.25.

As for the Chinese stock indices, CSI 300 rose 2.52% to gain 90.56 points and reach 3,690.26, while the Shanghai Composite Index also rose 2.09% (59.68 points) to reach 2,910.63.

As for Hong Kong's Hang Sang, it rose 1.46% (412.44 points) to 28,723.51. While South Korea's Kospi Index rose 0.54% (11.44 points) to 2,113.45.

To New Zealand's NZX 50, which rose 0.13% (12.72 points) to 10,117.07. While Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index also rose 0.26% to gain 16.07 points and reached the level of 6,311.40.