INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
TOKYO/WASHINGTON: Asian shares rose on Thursday on hopes the Covid-19 pandemic is nearing a peak and that governments would roll out more
stimulus measures, while expectations of an oil production cut agreement bolstered crude prices.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific
shares outside Japan was up 0.6 per cent, following a strong Wall Street close.
Shares in China, where the novel coronavirus first emerged
late last year, rose 0.54 per cent
Australian shares were up 1.52 per cent.
Oil prices extended gains on hopes major producers will cut output at a meeting later in the day in
response to a collapse in global oil demand.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said the state's efforts at social distancing were working in
getting the virus under control in one of the biggest hot spots in the United States.
US
President Donald Trump said he would like to reopen the US
economy with a "big bang" but that the death toll from the coronavirus first needs to be heading down.
"There are signs that infections are
peaking, which is leading to the change in market sentiment," said Masayuki Kichikawa, chief macro strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui Asset
Management Co in Tokyo.
"We still need to be very careful, because this is not purely an economic problem
It's more like a natural disaster and, therefore, harder to predict."
The S-P 500 gained 3.41 per cent on Wednesday, helped by hopes the
pandemic was nearing its peak
stock futures gave up earlier gains to be down 0.27 per cent
The Trump administration has asked lawmakers for an additional $250 billion in
businesses.
However, congressional efforts were stalling as Democrats held out for similar amounts of aid for hospitals and local
governments.
Wall Street rallied on Trump's optimism though recent US
data and forecasts are only now beginning to reflect the economic damage.
McDonald's Corp said global comparable sales tumbled 22.2 per cent
in March, while Starbucks Corp forecast a 47 per cent drop in second-quarter earnings.
Japan's Nikkei stock index bucked the regional trend
and fell 0.55 per cent as coronavirus infections in the country rose and following the government's declaration of a state of emergency for
Tokyo and other urban areas.
The novel coronavirus has spread across the globe, infecting more than 1.4 million people and causing more than
83,400 deaths, according to a Reuters tally.
Wuhan, the Chinese city where the new virus emerged late last year, ended its more-than
two-month lockdown on Wednesday, but many officials across the world remain nervous about the pace of infections and deaths.
The euro nursed
losses against the dollar and the pound after euro zone finance ministers failed on Wednesday to agree on more support for their
coronavirus-hit economies.
The pandemic is still infecting and killing large numbers of people across Europe and there is still no sign that
the peak of the region's outbreak has been reached, the EU's disease monitoring agency said.
Sterling edged up for a third consecutive
Helping confidence was news British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's condition is improving and he is able to sit up in bed and engage with
clinical staff.
Johnson is in intensive care battling Covid-19.
US
crude rose 4.58 per cent to $26.24 a barrel
Brent crude rose 2.5 per cent to $33.71 per barrel.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) and allies including Russia
- a group known as Opec+ - are set to convene a video conference meeting on Thursday.
Hopes of an agreement to cut between 10 million and 15
million barrels per day (bpd) rose after media reports suggested Russia was ready to reduce its output by 1.6 million bpd.
