Asia-Pacific shares trade higher, BOJ makes no change to yield range

Bank of Japan’s governor Haruhiko Kuroda said in an afternoon press conference on Wednesday that there is no further need to expand its yield curve control range, according to a Reuters translation.

“We don’t need to further expand the band around our yield target,” Kuroda was quoted as saying.

“It’s been not long since we decided on our measures in December. It will likely take some more time for the measures to start having an effect in fixing market function,” he said.

The Bank of Japan held its interest rates at a dovish -0.1% rate and made no changes to its yield curve control band.

– Jihye Lee

Morgan Stanley estimates that the Chinese equity market will emerge as the best performer in 2023.

The MSCI China index will reach 80 and the Hang Seng index will rise to 24,500 by the end of the year, Morgan Stanley’s Chief China Equity Strategist Laura Wang said. This would mark around a 15% upside from where the market is trading now.

“This actually implies that the Chinese equity market will actually top the global equity market performance for 2023, so this is the time to get back into China,” she noted.

Wang’s recommendation is to buy the stocks of large-cap and highly liquid internet names.

The internet sector has “very high correlation with the general momentum of consumption pickup in China,” especially in the country’s post Covid recovery journey, she said.

Wang added many global institutional investors are still quite significantly underweight on these large cap liquid names.

—Lee Ying Shan

Semiconductor stocks are looking up after a rough 2022 — and fund manager Trent Masters says two stocks are well placed to ride out the volatility.

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— Zavier Ong

Oil prices are supported on further China reopening optimism and fuel demand, with OPEC forecasting that Chinese oil demand is on track for a bounce.

Brent crude futures rose 0.85% to $86.65 a barrel, while the U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures gained 0.91% to $80.91 a barrel.

“Chinese oil demand is on course to rebound due to the recent relaxation of the country’s zero-Covid measures,” OPEC’s monthly oil report stated.

It added that China’s first quarter oil demand will rebound from an annual decline of 0.3 million barrels per day year-on-year in 2022’s fourth quarter to 0.2 million barrels per day annualized growth.

– Lee Ying Shan

The Japanese yen weakened against the greenback after the Bank of Japan surprised markets by keeping its yield curve tolerance band unchanged.

The Japanese yen weakened 2.04% against the U.S. dollar after the announcement and last stood at 130.94.

“Japan’s economy…