| Asian stocks jumped earlier today, boosted by announcements from China’s Ministry of Finance and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. China’s Ministry of Finance lifted sentiment after it said it would speed up reform of the tax system, boost infrastructure spending, and accelerate the use of the public-private-partnership model to support economic growth. The Shanghai Composite Index closed up 2.3% while the Hang Seng Index traded up 4.2%, extending a rebound fromTuesday. In Japan, the Nikkei Stock Average was back in positive territory for the year, closing up 7.7%, after falling to a year-to-date loss Tuesday. Abe said the government plans to reduce the corporate tax rate by 3.3 percentage points over two years. The Nikkei scored its biggest daily percentage gain since October 2008, as well as the largest point gain since January 1994 closing at 18,771. |
