SINGAPORE: Asian share markets scaled new highs on Friday as investors sized up US rate cuts for September and the mood was upbeat, while the euro hit a three-week peak ahead of French elections.
Sterling was firm at $1.2767 as Britain’s Labour Party was set for a landslide poll victory that will sweep it to power after 14 years of Conservative rule.
Elsewhere, the dollar was slightly weaker and Treasury yields marginally higher in Tokyo, as trade resumed after the US Independence Day holiday.
Japan’s Nikkei and broader Topix both nudged up to record levels, as did Taiwan’s benchmark.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.2% to a two-year high with Samsung’s estimate of a more than 15-fold rise in second-quarter profit helping South Korea’s KOSPI to a two-year peak as well.
Singapore’s bank and property heavy Straits Times index is up more than 3% in as many days and also struck two-year highs.
“Global liquidity remains flush and with the S&P (500) printing a ridiculous number of records these days t some point valuations elsewhere will make a compelling enough case,” said Vishnu Varathan, chief economist at Mizuho in Singapore.
He noted artificial intelligence demand had driven chipmaker rallies in Taiwan and South Korea, that interest-rate settings were fuelling record profits for Singapore’s big banks and that a weak yen had been a tailwind for Japanese equities.
Asia stocks hit 27-month top, dollar slips on rate cut talk
Japanese household spending unexpectedly fell in May, government data showed on Friday, complicating the interest rate outlook especially as one of the factors behind the drop has been how the weak yen has curbed consumers’ purchasing power.
The yen rose slightly to 160.9 per dollar.
FTSE futures opened 0.3% higher on Friday and S&P 500 futures were up ever so slightly to suggest a fresh record for the cash index may be in store later in the day.
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