Despite COVID-19, not all Asian stock markets are gloomy

South Korea, the Philippines, and Indonesia were the first markets in Asia-Pacific to enter the territory of growth after increasing 20% from the lowest point, established a few weeks ago.

Some optimisms

At the moment, Asian markets have many reasons to be optimistic. The number of deaths in New York has decreased, showing signs of the peak of the disease. The same thing is happening in Italy and Spain.

US President Donald Trump said he saw signs of stagnation in the epidemic in the United States. In addition to the epidemic, markets are optimistic about the oil deal between Saudi Arabia and Russia and other major oil exporters as the oil price war among exporters has been causing the price of this type of fuel to plummet, sometimes even cheaper than coal.

Korea

Compared to the bottom on 19th March, Korea's Kospi has grown by more than 20%, which is an increase that, technically, proves that a market that is entering the territory of growth.

Shares of Samsung, the largest company in South Korea, have also increased sharply thanks to the optimistic preliminary earnings report published a day earlier.

The Philippines

Philippine stocks also had an ideal new week start with increases of 4.2% and 1.19% in the trading sessions on 6th April and 7th April, bringing it up 21.7% over the 8-year low level established on 19th March.

It is the fact that the Philippine authorities ordered an additional blockade for two more weeks that has assured investors. They are only concerned that the blockade order will be lifted soon, escalating the risk of spreading the disease.

Indonesia

In Indonesia, the Jakarta Composite also increased by 4.1% in the first trading session of the week, helping the country's stock increase by 22% compared to the bottom pm 24th March.

The reduction of 0.69% on 7th April does not affect much to the general. This helps it meet technical standards for a growing market. "The Indonesian stock market's wobble is terrible, although basically, this jump is inexplicable because businesses are facing a drop in sales this year because of the disease.

One explanation is that the funds in this market are buying stocks because of low prices, "said Kendra Crisnanda, chief research officer of PT MNC Securities Company Sekuritas.

The rise of Asian markets takes place in the context of stocks simultaneously being sold strongly by the spreading disease. Originating from China, COVID-19 has soon spread to many Asian countries.

However, Europe and America are now the biggest victims of COVID-19 as their numbers of cases have reached tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands.

​Despite the strong recovery, entering the territory of the growing market is just a technical sign. If compared with the peak that these stock indexes have established at the end of last year and early this year, the gap is still very large.

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