OVERNIGHT

It was all about goals it seems as investors viewed the stock market Monday in China by pushing it higher after officials over the weekend announced their economic goals, the WSJ reported, setting a lower target for this year than that of 2015. The lower number apparently didn't bother investors.

During the NPC, China’s annual legislative session, officials set goals for the economy to grow 6.5% to 7% this year, lower than the “around 7%” target set in 2015. Investors’ expectations of greater government spending on public projects helped send shares of industrial goods producers—growth drivers of the “old economy”—in China and Hong Kong higher Monday. Beijing is trying at the same time to support companies catering to the middle class as it moves from an investment-led economy to one more driven by consumption. These so-called “new economy” firms include those in the technology, pharmaceuticals and clean energy sectors.

China is expected Monday to report the level of foreign-currency reserves it held in February. The figure illustrates how quickly China burned through its reserves to curb the amount of money leaving the country amid recent worries of yuan depreciation.

The Shanghai Composite Index was last up 0.8%, led by gains in shares of basic materials producers. The smaller Shenzhen Composite Index climbed 2.3%. Markets elsewhere in Asia were mixed. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index turned up 0.2%, Korea’s Kospi was up 0.3% and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was up 1.1%. Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average was down 0.5%.

Gold was at $1260.40 an ounce and Brent trading just above $39 a barrel.