Asian Equities Higher Despite Concerns

Asian equities stage a surprise rally

Asian equities were higher across the board this morning, despite a somber finish by Wall Street. Growth fears and Delta-variants finally saw Wall Street’s multi-day run higher, come to an end overnight. The fell by 0.70%, the slumped by 0.93%, and the retreated by 0.79% as a wave of risk aversion swept equity markets and other asset classes. Aftermarket futures on all three have risen modestly, with Asia today, climbing by around 0.10%.

Asian markets were mostly rallying today, though, in contrast to Wall Street. As I have stated, the drivers for the rallies across the region were not clear. An , falling virus cases in China, a weak CNY fixing, bargain hunting after a few negative days, or weaker Asian currencies, or a FOMO buy the dip could all be combining to drive the rally. Without looking under the hood regionally, much of the buying could also be in more defensive stocks, pushing up the headline indexes.

Either way, Asia was enjoying a good day with the 0.73% higher and the jumping by 0.95%. China’s , and were all 0.70% higher. jumped by 0.90%, while was up 0.20%, and and were 0.30%.

lagged the region, the KLCI unchanged on the day as Malaysia’s political chaos weighs on investor sentiment. Australian markets were laboring under virus concerns still with the and climbing just 0.10% today, while received an RBNZ boost on its way to a 0.55% gain.

The key will be whether today’s rally has legs or not or is merely a FOMO buy-the-dip one-off. We should know more tomorrow. The price action by Asia and the US futures should be enough to alleviate virus nerves temporarily in Europe, which I expect to open modestly higher today as a result.

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