Japanese Equities Bounce As Yen Falls, Tech Stocks Top Performers

Asian markets have seen a strong rebound today, after a historic plunge on Monday. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index gained as much as 3.9%, driven by recoveries in Japanese, South Korean, & Taiwan markets. There were no major headlines for the sharp bounce, although the yen did fall over 1% which has helped Japanese exporters, and the VIX is well off overnight highs of 65.

• Japanese stocks have surged higher this morning, recovering from the previous day's historic 12% collapse. The Nikkei 225 and Topix indices jumped more 10%, marking their biggest gains since October 2008 we currently trade about 8% higher. This rebound was led by exporters such as Toyota Motor and Hitachi, they were also helped by a weaker yen which fell about 1.5%. The Topix Bank Index dropped 17.45% on Monday, although has only recovered 3.50% today.
• South Korean stocks have also jumped today, following the previous session's nearly 9% crash. Earlier there was a halt on program trading after the KOSPI rose over 5% in a minute, this was the first halt for program buying since June 2020. Samsung is currently trading 2.80% higher, after initially opening up over 5%. The KOSPI is 3% higher, while the KOSDAQ is 5.75% higher.
• Taiwan equities opened 4% higher, before giving all gains up and trading back below the 200-day EMA, we have since recovered again to trade 3% higher. Foreign investors have been heavy sellers of stocks recently and could have used the gap high on the open as a liquidity window.
• Australia equities are only slightly higher today, the RBA kept rate and hold and didn't chance their stance much, the ASX 200 is 0.30% higher. In New Zealand the NZX 50 is 0.30% lower after largely ignoring the sell-off on Monday.
• In the EM space markets are mostly higher, with Malaysia's KLCI up 2%, Philippines PSEi up 0.5%, Indonesia's JCI up 1.10%, while Singapore's Straits Time is 0.70% lower.