BENGALURU: Emerging Asia equities rose to multi-year highs on Tuesday, with South Korea and Taiwan shares hitting new peaks as easing Sino-US trade tensions and AI-driven investment keep the appetite for risk assets running hot.
The MSCI gauge of emerging market equities touched its highest level since late February 2021, driven by a 1.3 percent rally in China’s stocks. A gauge tracking ASEAN equities, dominated by Singapore, jumped 1 percent.
Investors shrugged off credit worries in US regional banks and embraced risk assets in developing economies poised to benefit from an expected Federal Reserve policy easing.
“The ‘buy almost everything’ trade has been reinvigorated as concerns about US regional banks, credit, and funding markets continue to fade into the rear-view mirror,” said Chris Weston, head of research at Pepperstone.
“Trump continues to signal optimism around trade negotiations with China and markets are reducing expectations of the 100 percent additional tariffs on Chinese imports going into effect on November 1.”
South Korea’s KOSPI index ended at a record closing high of 3,823.84 points on rising hopes that the East Asian country will secure a trade deal with the United States by the time of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit later this month.
Taiwan’s benchmark index closed 0.2 percent higher at 27,752.41 points. Earlier in the day, it attempted to breach but stopped a few points short of the 28,000-level.
Singapore’s FTSE Straits Times index advanced 1.3 percent, marking its strongest single-session gain in nearly three weeks. Top lenders DBS Group, OCBC, and United Overseas Bank advanced up to 1 percent.
Indonesia’s stocks jumped 1.6 percent to a one-week high, driven by Bank Central Asia, which advanced more than 6 percent after the country’s top lender by market value reported healthy growth in total loans and profits for the first nine months of the year.
The rush into equities precedes Bank Indonesia’s monetary policy decision on Wednesday, where the central bank is widely expected to cut its key interest rate for a fourth consecutive time, a Reuters poll showed.
Elsewhere in Southeast Asia, shares in Thailand and Malaysia rose up to 0.5 percent, while stocks in the Philippines rose up to 0.2 percent.
Vietnam’s benchmark stock index rebounded a percentage point after plunging more than 5 percent on Monday following a state media report on alleged irregularities in the use of corporate bond proceeds.
Currencies in the region were largely unchanged, with Taiwan’s dollar edging higher, while Indonesia’s rupiah ticked lower.
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