- Asian stocks pullback as China claims to find a cure to the deadly virus, death toll declines.
- Statistics from South Korea, Hong Kong remain a matter of concern while Malaysia’s power struggle also hinders the risk-on.
- The return of Japanese traders struggles to gain traction.
Asian equity bears pause for a break on Tuesday as coronavirus (COVID-19) headlines from China placate traders after portraying a sea of red the previous day. Not only a successive reduction in the number of deaths due to the COVID-19 but claims that Tianjin University has successfully developed an oral vaccine to counter the epidemic also marked the risk reset. Even so, statistics from South Korea and Hong Kong keep the risk-tone under pressure while the political game in Malaysia also plays its role to limit the optimism.
That said, MSCI’s gauge of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan registers 0.30% gain while Japan’s NIKKEI fails to cheer the recovery in the trade sentiment while declining 3.3% to 22,600 by the press time of the pre-Europe session on Tuesday. Even so, the US 10-year treasury yields recover to 1.397 by the time of writing.
The World Health Organization (WHO) praises Chinese efforts but little positive comes out from the rest of the world. However, policymakers in the US and Japan are less worried as they are prepared for taking measures.
However, stocks in China remain downbeat while those of Indian recover as US President Donald Trump’s Indian visit is likely to offer the much-needed deal to the Bhartiya Janata Party-led government.
Bloomberg cites the power struggle in Malaysia, after the PM Mahathir Mohamad’s abrupt resignation, puts the economy’s outlook at risk. However, the Asian country’s equity gauge marks 0.71% gains to 1,500 by the time of writing.
Even if the coronavirus fears are receding in China, the ex-Beijing picture is still gloomy and could keep the equities under pressure.
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