Asian stocks climb as hopes grow coronavirus is peaking
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Asian stocks rose today as hopes grew the global coronavirus outbreak is reaching its peak and oil prices grew on expectations of a production cut.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose 0.65 per cent despite Japan’s Nikkei dropping 0.33 per cent overnight. The Nikkei sank as coronavirus infections rose in Japan, after the government declared a state of emergency for Tokyo and other cities.
But MSCI’s broadest range of Asian shares excluding Japan climbed 0.73 per cent as traders expected more government stimulus to combat coronavirus.
Asian stocks gained after Wall Street closed higher yesterday, with the Dow posting another robust 3.8 per cent rise. The Nasdaq also climbed 2.6 per cent while the S&P 500 surged 3.4 per cent.
Those figures came despite a record 779 people dying from coronavirus in New York yesterday. That number was 48 higher than Tuesday’s figure, itself a daily record.
But governor Andrew Cuomo said coronavirus hospitalisations were still falling, prompting hopes that New York was flattening the curve.
“The hospitalisations can start to drop, the deaths actually increase because the people who have been in the hospital for 11 days, 14 days, 17 days pass away. That’s what we are seeing,” Cuomo said.
President Donald Trump said he wants to reopen the economy with a “big bang”. But first the US death toll must hit a downward slope, he said.
However, US markets rose on the President’s optimism, bolstering Asian stocks too.
“There are signs that infections are peaking, which is leading to the change in market sentiment,” Masayuki Kichikawa, chief macro strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui Asset Management Co in Tokyo, told Reuters.
Global confirmed coronavirus infections now number 1.48m, with more than 88,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.
But European coronavirus cases appear to be dropping too, leading analysts to hope the apex of the pandemic has come and gone.
The UK government yesterday said Prime Minister Boris Johnson is doing better in hospital, too, where he is in intensive care.
While the UK posted 938 coronavirus deaths yesterday, the rate of infections fell.
Deutsche Bank’s Jim Reid said there are “hopes that this is a lagging indicator”. And he called the new cases growth of under 10 per cent “a marked improvement from the previous five-day average of 14.4 per cent”.
Accordingly, traders were set to push the FTSE 100 1.5 per cent higher at its 8am open, according to online trader IG.
Oil prices have risen too as investors look to a meeting of oil cartel Opec later today hoping to see major production cuts to bolster prices.