Asian stock market: Bulls cheer BOJ stimulus, risk reset amid a light calendar

• Asian equities benefit from the BOJ’s easing.
• Coronavirus fears catch a breath amid the absence of US task force briefings.
• Expected easing in lockdowns in Pacific nations also favors the risk-on sentiment.
• China’s Industrial Profits, virus data mostly ignored.

With the BOJ scrapping limits on the JGB purchase, shares in Asia register gains, despite a light economic calendar, during the pre-Europe session on Monday. That said, MSCI’s index of Asia-Pacific shares, outside Japan, stay 1.65% in green whereas Japan’s NIKKEI adds above 2.5% to 19,790 by the press time.

The Bank of Japan (BOJ) matched wide marked expectations of removing the limits of its Japanese Government Bonds (JGBs) purchases.  The Japanese central bank also cut the 2020 GDP and inflation forecasts during the quarterly outlook report.

On the other hand, China’s Industrial Profits for March tanked near 35.00% but were mostly ignored amid silent markets as stocks in China gain close to 1.0% by the press time.

Elsewhere, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) took steps worth $6.6 billion to help the ailing mutual fund industry overcome the exodus of funds due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) fears. The news manages to please the Indian benchmarks, namely BSE SENSEX and NIFTY 50, which currently rise over 2.00%.

Amid all these, hopes of easing lockdowns in Australia and New Zealand managed to keep the risk-tone lighter while an absence of the Trump administration’s daily coronavirus briefings could also be guessed as a reason for the risk reset. As a result, Australia’s ASX is up 1.30% to 5,311 by the time of writing while markets in New Zealand witness thin liquidity due to the ANZAC Day holiday.

It’s worth mentioning that the US 10-year Treasury yields register three basis points (bps) of gains to 0.624% while the US stock futures are also up over 1.0% at the time of writing.

Alike Asia, the European and the US session are also likely to witness thin liquidity due to the lack of major data/events ahead of the key catalysts up for fuelling the moves during the week.