Asia-Pacific Stock Exchanges (APX) traded in a positive mood Thursday morning as major stock indexes soar following the example of their overseas counterparts from the US. The reason for the strengthening of the position was the expectation of the voting results in the US presidential election.
Nevertheless, no one can predict the exact result, since not all states are finished with the vote counts yet. Thus, the picture is still rather vague, although many people speak about the victory of Joe Biden. In the future, a division of the Congress is expected, as it was before.
However, the financial incentive program in America may be in question (at least, its quantitative part). Most likely, there will be no large-scale measures, which will force the US Federal Reserve, for its part, to prepare additional incentives to support the economy.
Japan's Nikkei 225 Index rose 1.35% in the morning, allowing it to reach its highest point for the first time in seven months. At the same time, it is worth considering the positive dynamics in the statistical data on the country's economy. In particular, the level of the business activity index for the second month of autumn became higher and reached 47.7 points, which was earlier in the region of 46.9 points.
In addition, the general PMI index also marked growth at 48 points compared to the previous level of 46.7 points.
Both indicators showed their maximum growth, which was last recorded almost a year ago.
China's Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.95%. The Hang Seng index of Hong Kong went even further: its growth was 2.71%.
South Korea's KOSPI rose 1.85%.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 went up 1.17%. Australia's trade surplus widened significantly, reaching $ 5.63 billion in the first month of fall. Earlier its value was 2.62 billion Australian dollars. The country's export sector also increased by 4%. Imports, on the contrary, fell by about 6%, which is not too much of a problem.
Likewise, European stock exchanges also traded in a positive mood. Major stock indexes traded in the green despite uncertainty over the US presidential election.
The main event for European investors will be the results of the meeting of the Bank of England. It has already become known that the Central Bank left the previous level of the base interest rate unchanged at 0.1%. At the same time, the government bonds redemption program was increased. Recall that its previous volume was 725 billion pounds, and the current one moved to the level of 875 billion pounds. The reason for the forced measure was the negative situation in the country's economy, which is caused by the influence of the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic and the quarantine measures introduced against its background.
In addition, the Bank of England has revised its latest forecast for the country's GDP to worsen this indicator. Thus, according to the updated data, the economy of the state by the end of the current year should contract by about 11%, while earlier it was supposed to decrease to 9.5%. At the same time, GDP growth next year will also be limited: instead of 9%, there will be an increase of more than 7.25%.
The overall STOXX Europe 600 Index of Large Enterprises in the European Region is up 0.69% moving it to 365.83 points.
The UK FTSE 100 Index gained 0.14%. The German DAX Index climbed 0.88%. France's CAC 40 Index added 0.69%. Italy's FTSE MIB jumped 1.28%. Spain's IBEX 35 Index rose by 0.89%.
