Asian stocks, currencies rally on Fed's move to boost liquidity

Stocks and currency markets in Asia rallied on Tuesday after the US Federal Reserve readied its corporate bond buying programme, boosting risk appetite that was otherwise receding over fears of a second wave of coronavirus infections.

The Fed provided more details of its anticipated programme to buy investment grade US corporate bonds in the secondary market from Tuesday, reinforcing hopes that authorities would continue to flood the market with liquidity.

"While it is almost inevitable that we see bouts of new virus cases globally, ultimately the massive liquidity injection from major central banks will overshadow concerns," said Edward Ng, a Singapore-based portfolio manager at Nikko Asset Management.

Indonesia shares led the charge in Southeast Asia, rising 3.5pc, while Singapore and the Philippine closed around 2pc higher.

In India, however, stocks pulled back by afternoon after the country's army said one of its officers and two soldiers were killed in a "violent faceoff" on the border with China.

The rupee eased as much as 0.3pc against the dollar after the news broke, but the stocks closed marginally higher.

The overnight announcement by the US central bank to infuse further liquidity overshadowed fears of a fresh wave of infections following the emergence of new cluster of COVID-19 cases in Beijing in recent days.

The improved risk appetite also drove gains in currency markets, at the expense of the dollar, with the South Korean won emerging as the best performer, strengthening 0.7pc.

The pace of economic reopening has varied across Asia, with the Philippines saying partial restrictions in Manila would remain for two more weeks, while Singapore plans to remove most of its restrictions by Friday.

Indonesia's economy faces the risk of recession this year due to the pandemic, its finance minister said, adding that only a small amount of the government's billion dollar budget to fight the crisis had been doled out.