CHINEXT Back To May 2020 Lows, Positive Trends Elsewhere

Outside of China/HK equities, regional Asia Pac equity sentiment is mostly positive in Tuesday trade to date. Japan markets have been the strongest performers, with gains around 0.75%. Other markets are mostly seeing gains of around 0.50% at this stage. US equity futures sits slightly in the red. Eminis have largely been range bound, last near 4409. Nasdaq futures are also down a touch, last near 14968.5, but like Eminis largely holding onto gains from Monday's session.

• The Topix is +0.75% at this stage, while the Nikkei 225 is up by the same amount. Some excitement in the tech space is aiding sentiment, with spill over evident from the US Monday session and focus on Nvidia's earnings on Wednesday. The SoftBank Arm IPO is also generating some interest.
• China and Hong Kong equities were stronger in the first part of trade but had little follow through. At the break, the CSI 300 is down ~0.30%, after early gains of as much as 0.80%. The index is making fresh lows back to late November 2022. The CHINEXT index is back to May 2020 lows.
• The HSI is faring slightly better, up 0.16% at the break, but we opened around +1% higher.
• Tech related indices in terms of the Taiex (+0.45%) and Kospi (+0.40%) are modestly higher.
• In SEA, Indonesian and Thai stocks are the best performers, with both indices around 0.60% higher at this stage. Thai politics is in focus with the PM vote currently taking place and former PM Thaksin has returned from a 15yr exile.