AUS
NZ
UK
CA
USA
IND
Summary
- APAC markets have made a strong comeback.
- Australia, Japan are among the region’s star performers.
- Chinese shares remain flat.
The equity markets in the Asia Pacific region rebounded on Wednesday after a day of huge losses yesterday, following the trend set by Wall Street.
In Japan, the benchmark Nikkei 225 surged 1.68% in the first one hour of trade, wiping most of the losses made on Tuesday. On the other hand, the Topix index rose 1.27% in the opening hour.
The buying in Japanese shares was buoyed by a better-than-expected trade data. The country’s exports surged 48.6% in June 2021, compared with the year ago period, according to data released on Wednesday by Japan’s Ministry of Finance. The export numbers came 240 basis points higher than what was anticipated by the markets.
Down Under, in Australia, the benchmark ASX200 surged 1.24% in the morning hour, as the country’s markets looked forward to preliminary retail sales data for June. The data set would be released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today.
Elsewhere in Korea, the KOPSI was up 16 basis points.
In the region’s largest economy – China – markets were trading near the flatline after the opening. The Shanghai Composite was down 5 basis points, while the Shenzhen Component was up 12 basis points.
Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley Capital International’s (MSCI) broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares traded 56 basis points lower.
Overnight in Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 549.95 points to 34,511.99. On the other hand, the S&P 500 jumped 1.52% to 4,323.06 while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 1.57% to 14,498.88.
With this, US stocks managed to partially recover the losses made on Monday, which saw the Dow plunging more than 700 points amid fears that a COVID-19 resurgence could slow the economic recovery.
Meanwhile, the crude oil market seems to be reclaiming the US$70/barrel mark again, as Brent Crude futures for September were trading up 79 basis points early morning.
