ASIAN EQUITY REBOUND
The BSE Sensex climbed 739 points or 1.31% to 57,313 in morning deals on Tuesday, gaining for the first time in three sessions and recovering from a 1.1% plunge Monday, as markets in Asia were largely higher in a cautious trade amid reports that US stocks overnight reversed losses after Twitter agreed to be bought by billionaire Elon Musk. Traders also welcomed news that the EU and India agreed Monday to set up a trade and technology council to step up cooperation. Last week, India and Britain agreed to strengthen their cooperation, with Boris Johnson saying a bilateral free-trade deal could be wrapped up by October. On local news, domestic media said the government is looking to fast-track asset monetization as the privatization of Bharat Petroleum Corporation of India is on hold. Mahindra CIE Automotive jumped 10% after reporting a surge in net profit for the March quarter. Bajaj Finance and HDFC Life Insurance gained 2.4% and 0.6%, each, ahead of their quarter results.
The Shanghai Composite rose 0.5% to around 2,944 while the Shenzhen Component gained 1.3% to 10,511 on Tuesday after facing accelerated selling in the previous session, as China pledged to boost monetary support for the nation’s Covid-afflicted economy. The People’s Bank of China said it will keep liquidity reasonably ample and boost healthy stable development of the financial markets. The bank also said it will add 100 billion yuan in relending to support coal development and increase storage capacity. The moves came a day after the benchmark indexes each plunged more than 5% on fears that Beijing may join Shanghai in Covid lockdowns. Consumer and healthcare stocks led the rebound, with strong gains from Kweichow Moutai (1.9%), Wuliangye Yibin (4.1%), China Tourism (6.4%), Wuxi Apptec (6.8%) and Aier Eye Hospital (7.4%). Industrial and technology firms also eked out gains, while resource-related stocks declined on weaker commodity prices.
The Hang Seng rose 121 points or 0.61% to 19,990 in early trade on Tuesday. Meantime, Bloomberg News said that Hong Kong is ready to launch yuan-denominated stock trading to cater investors in Shanghai and Shenzhen with final clearances from regulators in China expected in H2 of 2022. Also supporting sentiment, Wall Street reversed losses overnight after Twitter agreed to be bought by billionaire Elon Musk. Consumer cyclicals led the gains, followed by technology and healthcare. Among single stocks, Tencent rose 1.7%, while JD SW and Meituan jumped 5.9% and 5.1%, each.
The Nikkei 225 Index rose 0.5% to 26,727 while the broader Topix Index edged up 0.2% to 1,880 on Tuesday, recouping some losses from the previous session, as Japanese technology stocks tracked overnight gains on Wall Street amid a retreat in US Treasury yields. Gains among technology shares were led by SoftBank Group (4.2%), Tokyo Electron (1.1%), Mercari Inc (2.5%), Recruit Holdings (2.9%), Renesas Electronics (1.2%) and M3 Inc (3.3%). Elsewhere, Fujitsu rose 2.3% after a report said the computer maker was weighing a sale of its scanning business to office equipment maker Ricoh. Canon Marketing also jumped 7.1% after the sales arm of camera maker Canon raised its profit outlook. Meanwhile, resource-related firms fell on weaker commodity prices, with losses from Inpex Corp (-3.8%) and Sumitomo Metal (-7.9%).
