MTS Help Center

· Asian shares, oil buoyant on economic revival hopes

Asian shares hovered near record highs on Monday while oil surpassed $60 a barrel on hopes a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 aid package will be passed by U.S. lawmakers as soon as this month just as coronavirus vaccines are being rolled out globally.

In a sign Europe and U.S. markets would start strong, eurostoxx futures and Germany’s DAX rose 0.7% each, while London’s FTSE futures added 0.6%. E-mini futures for the S&P 500 were up 0.4% in early Asian trading.

The mood was upbeat in Asia with all major indexes clocking gains.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.5% to 721.11, not far from an all-time high of 730.16 touched late last month.

Hopes of a quicker economic revival and supply curbs by producer group OPEC and its allies pushed oil to its highest level in a year as it crossed $60 a barrel.

Global equity markets have scaled record highs in recent days on hopes of faster economic revival led by successful vaccine rollouts and expectations of a large U.S. pandemic relief package.

· Japanese shares hit fresh 30-year high on recovery hopes, earnings boost

Japanese shares surged on Monday, with both Nikkei and Topix hitting 30-year highs, as strong corporate earnings lifted investor confidence for an economic recovery from pandemic lows.

The Nikkei share average jumped 2.12% to 29,388.50, the highest level since August 1990, while the broader Topix rose 1.75% to 1,923.95, the highest since June 1991.

· China stocks end higher on market reform cheer, easing virus worries

China stocks closed higher on Monday as the country reported zero new local cases of the novel coronavirus and investors cheered Beijing’s latest reform measures for the stock market.

The blue-chip CSI300 index rose 1.5% to 5,564.56, while the Shanghai Composite Index added 1% to 3,532.45 points.

· China’s new anti-monopoly rules will have limited market impact for now, says analyst

China announced new anti-monopoly rules over the weekend — but that’s not likely to have much impact on the market for now, according to one market observer.

China’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) has tightened restrictions on China’s internet giants such as Alibaba and Meituan, and introduced new guidelines on Sunday to curb monopolistic behavior. The new rules formalize a draft that was released months earlier.

Monday’s market moves were in sharp contrast to the volatility seen in November, when Hong Kong-listed shares of China’s tech giants plummeted after the regulator’s initial announcement. Billions of dollars in market value were wiped out after the anti-trust guidelines were first proposed.

Hong said the market needs time to digest the details of the latest anti-monopoly guidelines, adding that China’s internet giants have been operating for years and already have “very solid” market positions.

While Hong acknowledged that the new rules will “make it easier for the smaller guys to grow,” he also added that a lot of the large internet players, like Alibaba and Tencent, have also “put their own money into many of the internet startups.”

· European markets open higher, tracking positive global sentiment

European stocks opened higher Monday with markets tracking positive sentiment in Asia and the U.S.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 index opened 0.4% higher, with most sectors in positive territory apart from Telecoms, Media and Food and Beverages.

European market sentiment is being buoyed by positive market action elsewhere, although earnings and coronavirus developments remain in focus.

Reference: CNBC, Reuters