Asian stocks bounced on Thursday after tentative steps by eurozone policymakers to tackle a crippling debt crisis, but investors remained wary that obstacles the bloc’s leaders face could weigh on the euro and Asian currencies in the medium term.
The euro held most of its gains against the dollar after jumping on Wednesday, when Germany and France voiced their commitment to keeping debt-ladened Greece in the eurozone.
The gains in Asia, tracking a rise in global markets, came a day after the MSCI Asia ex-Japan index hit a 14-month low, but some fund managers were sceptical that the rebound would be sustained.
“I’m a bit surprised by the move today. I was not expecting this and I don’t expect it to stay here for the whole day,” said Simon Burge, a portfolio manager at ATI Asset Management.
“I haven’t seen anything that provides me comfort that the situation has been dealt with yet.”
Tech stocks come out on top
Equity markets have been hammered since late July on the twin fears of renewed recession in the United States and the potential for Europe’s sovereign debt woes to trigger a wider crisis in the financial system.
Japan’s Nikkei share average rose 1.2%, while MSCI’s broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan gained 0.8%, with tech stocks the stand-out performers.
The Nikkei was coming off a two-and-a-half year closing low on Wednesday, while the MSCI index remains 20% below its 2011 high in April.
Optimism over tentative steps to resolve Europe’s debt crisis trumped weaker-than-expected retail sales data in the US, helping the S&P 500 close up more than 1%.
Some traders attributed the gains on Wall Street to short-covering — when market players buy to realise profits on bets a stock will fall in price — ahead of inflation numbers in the United States, with Europe still the clear focus.
Credit crunch
European finance ministers have been warned confidentially of the danger of a renewed credit crunch as a “systemic” crisis in eurozone sovereign debt spills over to banks, according to documents obtained by Reuters on Wednesday.
The euro jumped to a three-day peak of $1.3873 on Wednesday after a 25-minute telephone call between the leaders of France, Germany and Greece which boosted confidence that Athens will received the next tranche of aid from the European Union and International Monetary Fund and avoid imminent default.
The single currency’s recovery was further helped after European Commission President José Manuel Barroso flagged plans to present options soon for the introduction of common euro bonds. The project, however, is likely to meet stiff resistance from Germany.
The single currency was steady on Thursday around $1.3735, although most strategists believe its trend remains downwards, with only short-term solutions to the crisis on the table for now.
“Nothing has changed. Greece is still highly likely to have to do more restructuring,” said Joseph Capurso, currency strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia. He expected the euro to slip to as far as $1.3640 by the end of the week.
The dollar edged 0.1% higher against a basket of major currencies.
Talk of foreign investors pulling money out of Asia on concerns another global credit crunch may be looming could weigh on regional currencies. Earlier in the week, traders reported heavy fund selling of Asian currencies.
The gains in Asian stocks put safe-haven bets such as gold under pressure.
Spot gold slipped around 0.4% to about $1,813 an ounce, after falling nearly 1% in the previous session. It hit a lifetime high of around $1 920 an ounce last week.
Oil was little changed, with Brent crude edging down 21c to $112.19 a barrel, while US crude lost 22c to $88.68. — Reuters