Chinese tech stocks jump as Hong Kong leads gains among Asia-Pacific markets

SINGAPORE — Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index led gains among the major Asia-Pacific markets on Monday as Chinese tech stocks in the city jumped.

In morning trade, the Hang Seng index gained about 1% as shares of Tencent surged 2.16%. Other Chinese tech stocks also rose, with Alibaba up 2.64% while NetEase soared 4.91%.

Markets in mainland China are closed on Monday and Tuesday this week for holidays.

The Nikkei 225 in Japan traded fractionally higher as shares of conglomerate SoftBank Group gained 3.76%. The Topix index climbed 0.16%.

South Korea’s Kospi dipped 0.33%.Elsewhere in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.43%.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan traded 0.4% higher.

The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 98.587, as compared to levels below 98 seen in late March.

The Japanese yen traded at 122.41 per dollar, stronger than levels above 124 seen against the greenback last week. The Australian dollar was at $0.7499, having traded in a range between $0.747 and $0.753 for much of last week.

Oil prices were lower in the morning of Asia trading hours, with international benchmark Brent crude futures down 0.67% to $103.69 per barrel. U.S. crude futures slipped 0.59% to $98.68 per barrel.

— CNBC’s Patti Domm contributed to this report.