Asian shares up on China stimulus measures

Most Asian stocks rose today (May 26th) with indexes in Japan and China closing at their highest level in more than seven years after Beijing announced new measures to spur economic growth.

China's economic planning agency revealed yesterday that it wanted to attract private investment to more than 1,000 local public-private projects. It also announced it would halve import taxes on clothing, cosmetics and some other goods by half in a bid to stimulate consumer spending.

Meanwhile, traders focused on the tense relationship between Greece and its European creditors, with Finance minister Yanis Varoufakis blaming creditors’ insistence on more austerity for the failure in reaching an agreement on a bailout package.

Greek Prime Minister's spokesman Gabriel Sakellaridis said that disagreements remain in areas such as budget targets, sales-tax rates, pension and labour market rules, AP reports.

Japan's Nikkei 225 edged up 0.1 per cent to 20,437.48, Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.9 per cent to 28,249.86 and the Shanghai Composite rose two per cent to 4,910.90.

Australia's S&P ASX/200 was up 0.9 per cent to 5,773.40 while South Korea's Kospi edged down 0.1 per cent to 2,143.50.

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