China stocks up

China stocks ended up more than 2% on Tuesday as markets resumed trading after a long weekend, with investor sentiment lifted by the government's latest stimulus to shore up the world's second-largest economy and a drop in cases of the new coronavirus.
At close, the Shanghai Composite index was up 2.05% at 2,820.76. The blue-chip CSI300 index was up 2.28%, with its financial sector sub-index higher by 1.52%, consumer staples up 3.11%, real estate up 1.23% and healthcare up 2.63%.
The smaller Shenzhen index ended up 3.18% and startups board ChiNext Composite index was higher by 3.31%.
China's central bank said on Friday it was cutting the amount of cash that small banks must hold in reserve, releasing around 400 billion yuan ($56.38 billion) in liquidity to shore up an economy jolted by the coronavirus outbreak.
China has about 4,000 small and mid-sized banks. The latest cuts would lower their RRR to 6%.
Overall, China is stepping up its domestic counter-cyclical measures to combat the virus hit, though investors need to pay attention to the negative impact on external demand given uncertainties around the outbreak overseas, Sinolin Securities analysts said in a report.
Mainland China reported on Tuesday a drop in cases of the new coronavirus after closing its borders to virtually all foreigners to curb imported infections, while the central city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak, did not record any virus-related deaths for the first time since the outbreak began.