Since China’s shock currency devaluation in August, Asian stocks on Monday were closed to wiping out all their losses, as global equities rallied after the Chinese central bank cut rates and US tech giants provided upbeat earning guidance.
MSCI’s index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS rose 0.5 percent to hit its highest since Aug 12, led by 1.2 percent gains in Honk Kong HSI Japan’s Nikkei .N225 rose 1.1 percent to a two-month high.
The surprise move by China lifted risk assets that had been already boosted by Thursday’s message from the European Central Bank that it stood ready to enhance quantitative easing and cut interest rates to even deeper negative levels.
‘These moves by the ECB and China are raising speculation that the Bank of Japan will act later on this week as well,’ Masahiro Ichikawa, senior strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui Asset Management. The BOJ will hold its next policy review on Friday.
The US Federal Reserve is also widely expected to refrain from raising rates at its two-day policy meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Against these backdrop, the MSCI’s index of the world’s share markets .MIWD00000PUS shot up to its highest level since Aug 20, having risen more than 10 percent from its two-year low hit less than a month ago.
It has recovered most of the losses since Aug 11, when China’s sudden devaluation of the yuan sparked worries its economy may be in deeper trouble than many had thought.
On Wall Street, S&P 500 Index .SPX rose 1.1 percent to turn positive on the year, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq jumped 2.3 percent .IXIC.
Technology shares led the way, thanks to gains in Alphabet (GOOGL.O), Amazon (AMZN.O) and Microsoft (MSFT.O), after the three companies reported earnings results. The former two hit record highs, while Microsoft rose to a 15-year high.
Mainland Chinese shares rose on Monday after China cut the benchmark one-year lending rate – for the sixth time in less than a year – by 25 basis points to 4.35 percent, and lowered big banks’ reserve requirement ratio late.
Gains were fairly limited, however, with Shanghai composite index .SSEC up just 0.5 percent.
Naoki Tashiro, the president of TS China Research, noted that in the week following each of the past year’s five rate mainland shares rose three times but fell twice.
‘Mainland investors are cautious. The market has been rallying so far this month, so some investors could may well take profits into rally,’ he said.
One big focus is Chinese Communist party’s central committee meeting from Monday to Thursday to set out a new five-year plan, while investors attempt to gauge how much China’s growth is likely to slow in coming years.
