Asia-Pac Higher On Wall St. Lead, Chinese Mega Cap Rally

The major Asia-Pac equity indices trade 0.3% to 2.0% higher, on the back of a positive lead from U.S. equities.

• The Hang Seng leads the gains, driven by a rally in Chinese mega cap tech names such as Alibaba, following a rise in their U.S. ADRs on Tuesday. The Hang Seng Tech index gained 3.1%, after a 3.9% rise in the Nasdaq Golden Dragon China index during the U.S. session.
• The CSI300 brings up the rear amongst regional peers, adding 0.3%. A broad rally in Chinese property developer shares (on the back of the latest unwind of tightening measures hampering the sector) was countered by weakness in high-beta equities, with the tech-heavy ChiNext and STAR50 unchanged to a touch lower at typing. Note that offshore investors haven’t showed much in the way of interest when it comes to following Tuesday’s reported “National Team” buying of mainland Chinese equities, at least when it comes to observable Northbound Hong Kong-China Stock Connect flows. This morning’s cumulative net northbound flows via the Stock Connect channels sit at a relatively paltry ~CNY2bn of purchases.
• The ASX 200 closed 1.1% higher, shrugging off a decline in the Australian Westpac-Melbourne Institute Index of Consumer Sentiment, with the latter pulling back to near-neutral levels.
• E-mini futures trade at the top of their Asia range at typing, 0.4% to 0.5% above their respective settlement levels.