Asian shares benefit after MSCI decides to put more Chinese shares in global benchmarks
Shanghai — Asian shares rose on Friday, driven by a rally in Chinese markets after index publisher MSCI announced it would boost the proportion of mainland shares in its global benchmarks, while strong US economic data helped the dollar higher. Chinese shares rallied, with the blue-chip CSI300 index adding 1.2% after MSCI said it would quadruple the weighting of mainland shares in its global benchmarks later this year, potentially drawing more than $80bn of fresh foreign inflows to the world's second-biggest economy. That, along with strength in other markets in the region, helped push MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan up more than 0.3%. The boost in mainland stocks on Friday follows a strong run for Chinese shares, which posted their strongest month in nearly four years in February, largely driven by investor hopes for government stimulus and policy support, as well as optimism over US-China trade talks. “Just two months ago China was facing one of the wors...
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