Asia-Pacific stocks added to their start-of-week rebound early Tuesday, following a 3% surge on Wall Street as worries about global trade fights eased.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei
NIK, +2.40%
finished morning trading 1.6% higher, as the yen continued to pull back and concerns about domestic politics eased.
Former Ministry of Finance official Nobuhisa Sagawa told parliament Tuesday that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe didn’t order officials to alter documents in a disputed sale of government land.
Outside of “political noise,” fundamentals at Japanese companies remain attractive with strong domestic demand, said Tony Glover, head of investment management at BNP Paribas Asset Management Japan.
Other indexes in the region rose at least 0.5%, with Chinese small-cap benchmarks in Shenzhen
399106, +2.21%
gaining about 2%, extending Monday’s rally. South Korea
SEU, +0.51%
built on yesterday afternoon’s gains, while Australia
XJO, +0.70%
and New Zealand
NZ50GR, +0.90%
caught up after lagging Monday.
Investor apprehension about a potential trade war between the world’s two largest economies started to wane after The Wall Street Journal reported that China and the U.S. had started negotiating to improve American access to mainland markets.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang also highlighted China’s willingness to continue negotiations with the U.S.
“I believe China and U.S. both have the intelligence to resolve the issue” through talks and business rules, he told top U.S. and other foreign executives on the sidelines of the China Development Forum, according to an official statement issued late Monday.
Despite the upbeat optimism for stocks generally, some are wary about the rebound.
“There is no rush to get into the markets,” said Joanne Goh, a regional equity strategist at DBS Bank in Singapore. She highlighted pricey valuations despite volatility and price declines in many markets to start the year.
Source : MTV
