Asian markets mixed as investors cling to QE hopes

Key Asian markets showed resilience from global growth fears as the main Hong Kong and Chinese stock markets rallied strongly overnight, though Japanese stocks bucked the trend.

The Hong Kong Hang Seng Index gained 1.14% to close at 8,771 points, while the Shanghai Shenzhen CSI 300 jumped 2.12% to 2,318. The MSCI index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan also gained 0.5%. However, Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 1.04% to 8,771, as concerns over domestic corporate earnings hit sentiment. The gains demonstrate Asian equity markets are still feeding off recent hopes of further stimulus measures to come in Europe and the US. However, investors remain nervous about the outlook for earnings, with US indices closing lower across the board last night after it emerged...