Some of Asia's biggest stock markets on Monday clawed back ground lost June 24 at the start of the global equity market sell-off prompted by the U.K. Brexit vote.
In contrast to the June 24 risk-off spasm, Monday's trading was fairly “orderly,” said Markus Schomer, chief economist at PineBridge Investments.
In a briefing to reporters in Singapore, Mr. Schomer said while the vote to leave the European Union was certainly a shock, the initial economic ramifications — cementing the outlook for global interest rates to be lower for longer — made it a “shock in the direction that we've all been going for a while.”
Tokyo's Nikkei 225 benchmark index, which suffered Asia's sharpest decline on June 24 of 7.9%, rebounded 2.39%, second only to the Shenzhen composite index's 2.43% gain.
Markets posting more modest gains included the Shanghai composite index, up 1.45%; the Philippines PSE composite index, up 1.13%; Thailand's SET benchmark, up 0.8%; and Australia's S&P/ASX index, up 0.47%.
Other markets edged lower, including Malaysia, down 0.28%; Taiwan, off 0.21%; Singapore, down 0.2%; and Hong Kong, which sagged 0.16%.
Even with risk-off sentiment prevailing since the start of this year, institutional investors have remained under pressure to re-position their portfolios in search of yield, noted Ana Dhoraisingam, PineBridge's Singapore CEO and head of institutional sales, Southeast Asia, at the same briefing.
That has left investors looking to time allocations to segments such as U.S. credit, investment-grade bonds and multiasset strategies, said Ms. Dhoraisingam, adding that there are no signs of searches being called off.
