- Asian traders show optimism as AstraZeneca resumes vaccine trials, Pfizer signals year-end remedy to the pandemic.
- New Zealand’s hard stand on virus-led alert, Taiwan’s push for US dollar fail to get many accolades.
- Brexit pessimism looms ahead of the key week, US-China tussle continues.
- Japan’s Industrial Production recovers in July, New Zealand data flash mixed signals.
Asian shares extend Friday’s gains amid expectations that the coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine will soon be available. Also adding to the market optimism could be upbeat data from Japan and no major disappointment form elsewhere. As a result, the MSCI index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan gains 0.85% while Japan’s Nikkei 225 adds 0.66% by the press time of the pre-European session on Monday.
Following AstraZeneca’s weekend news suggesting to restart the final phase of trials, Pfizer also updated about its research while hinting the cure to be available for the US before 2020 ends.
Japan’s Industrial Production slumped -15.5% in July, below -16.1% expected and prior, whereas New Zealand’s Visitor Arrivals for the said month also bounced off -105.1% forecast to -98.5%. Though, the 46.9 prints of Business NZ PSI for August join an extension of lockdown restriction until September 21 to drag the NZX 50.
Reuters suggests that the Australian hot-spots for COVID-19 marked the lowest one-day rise in nearly three months, which in turn helps the ASX 200 to print 0.40% gains as we write.
India’s BSE Sensex shrugs off the surge in domestic new cases while following S&P 500 Futures’ surge of over 1.0% with 0.84% gains to 39,181. Further, Indonesia’s IDX Composite rally over 2.0% to become the Asia-Pacific leader while South Korea’s KOSPI also rises 1.22% by the press time.
Furthermore, stocks in China and Hong Kong pay a little heed to the Sino-American tension while marking gains ranging between 1.0% and 0.5%. Having retaliated to the Trump administration’s sanctions on Beijing’s diplomat, China orders an anti-dumping probe over the American ether imports.
Looking forward, Monday becomes a quiet start to the key week comprising monetary policy meetings from the BOJ, Fed and BOE. Even so, the UK’s Parliament voting on the Internal Market Bill (IMB) will be the key to watch. Also important to follow will be India’s WPI Inflation for July, expected -1.0% versus -0.58% prior.
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