Bourses Reverse Fortunes, Green Into European Open

Asia-Pac equities are in the green to start the week, recovering from a negative start. Positive sentiment was given a boost by reports that AstraZeneca would increase supplies of its vaccine to Europe and start delivery earlier, reversing its earlier advice which had seen the EU impose export controls on the vaccine.

• Indices in China were the laggards in the region; PMI data showed the pace of recovery slowed in January. The PBOC injected CNY 98bn for the second session, which helped alleviate concerns of a cash crunch and lowered repo rates from multi-year highs.
• Hong Kong was the beneficiary as mainland shares struggled, Japan and South Korea also saw some strong gains – the latter boosted by strong export data and a robust electronics sector.
• US futures saw similar price action to their Asia-Pac counterparts, a sharp initial drop retraced as the session wore on. The market endured its worst week since October last week, the uptick today has been attributed to participants gingerly returning to market.