Asian stocks rise after shaky start

HONG KONG  -Asian markets overcame a shaky start to enjoy modest gains on Thursday, bucking a session on Wall Street that saw major indices sink despite a surge in tech.

Blockbuster earnings lifted the tech-heavy Nasdaq on Wednesday, with both Microsoft and Meta soaring after delivering expectation-beating reports, but recession fears and concerns over the banking sector dragged down the Dow and the S&P.

By late afternoon in Asia, however, futures for all three indices were comfortably in the green.

Hong Kong, Tokyo and Shanghai were all up on Thursday as earnings season got into full swing, in spite of lackluster reports from some major players.

Japan’s Nomura bank saw its share price plunge more than seven percent after announcing its profits fell 76 percent to $55.3 million in the last quarter.

South Korean tech giant Samsung reported its worst quarterly profits in 14 years, blaming slowing consumer spending and falling microchip prices.

The company’s first-quarter net income fell 86.1 percent to $1.17 billion, and sales dropped 18 percent, though its stock closed 0.78 percent higher.

Japanese airline ANA Holdings, meanwhile, fell 1.54 percent, but said in an announcement after the market closed that it had returned to profit in the year ending in March, rebounding from deep pandemic-related losses.

In Hong Kong, excitement over the IPO of Chinese baijiu maker ZJLD — the largest debut on the bourse so far this year — fizzled as its shares tumbled, ending nearly 17 percent down.

Even so, its roughly $570 million in proceeds was equivalent to more than half of what the Hong Kong stock exchange generated from IPOs in the first quarter of 2023.

Seoul, Taipei, Mumbai, Jakarta, Manila and Kuala Lumpur were all up, while Sydney, Wellington, Bangkok and Singapore were down.

Paris was up in early trade on Thursday, while London and Frankfurt were down.

Global sentiment was dampened by fears for the health of the banking sector, with investors keeping an eye on the embattled First Republic Bank, which ended nearly 30 percent down on Wednesday after another bruising session.

Those worries, coupled with lackluster consumer confidence data among other indicators, have deepened fears of a broader recession, as did uncertainty over the US Federal Reserve’s next move with regards to its run of inflation-fighting interest rate hikes.

“We cannot rule out the possibility developments around First Republic could unfold in a manner that would lead the (Federal Open Market Committee) to skip May, while signaling a hike in June,” Evercore ISI’s head of central bank strategy Krishna Guha said in a note.

Investors will also be watching for key figures on US unemployment, GDP and inflation due later this week, as well as the outcome of the Bank of Japan’s first policy meeting under new governor Kazuo Ueda, which ends Friday.