SYDNEY – Asian shares scaled four-month peaks on Monday as investors counted on super-cheap liquidity and fiscal stimulus to sustain the global economic recovery, even as surging coronavirus cases delayed re-openings across the United States.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan climbed 1 percent to its highest since February.
Eyes were on Chinese blue chips, which jumped 3 percent, on top of a 7 percent gain last week, to their loftiest level in five years. Even Japan’s Nikkei, which has lagged with a soft domestic economy, managed a rise of 1.3 percent.
“We think there is a case for raising tactical allocation on Asian equities in the context of global equity portfolios,” wrote analysts at Nomura in a note.
“We see a number of catalysts that could drive Asia ex-Japan (AeJ) equities’ outperformance over US equities in the near term,” they added. “Better COVID-19 trends and mobility data in economies/markets that dominate the AeJ index should translate into faster economic recovery vs the US”
E-Mini futures for the S&P 500 also firmed 0.8 percent, while EUROSTOXX 50 futures added 1.8 percent and FTSE futures 1.5 percent.
Most markets had gained ground last week as a raft of economic data from June beat expectations, though the resurgence of coronavirus cases in the United States is clouding the future. — Reuters
