By Asian stocks held gains and moved tentatively further into record territory on Tuesday, after U.S. benchmarks were pepped up by news of another promising coronavirus vaccine, though futures indicated the rally could stall in European hours.
Investor sentiment was given a boost when Moderna Inc said its experimental COVID19 vaccine was 94.5 effective in preventing infection based on interim latestage data.
The Cambridge, Massachusettsbased firm became the second drugmaker, after Pfizer Inc, to announce promising trial data in the development of a vaccine. Its shares gained 9.6 on the day.
MSCIs broadest index of AsiaPacific shares outside Japan gained 0.17 on Tuesday, a day after hitting its highest level since launching in 1987.
The MSCI World Index of global shares which also hit a record high on Monday, ticked higher still in the Asian session.
The market is assuming that we can see the end of the tunnel, that in 2022 a large part of the worlds population will start to receive access to vaccines, said Herald van der Linde, HSBCs head of equity strategy for Asia Pacific.
There were initial indications that this was sparking a change in investors attitudes, he added.
The vaccine might mark a normalisation in markets whereby people start to rotate and move out of stocks and markets that have rallied, and move into ones that have not done as well, van der Linde said, citing some markets in Southeast Asia.
Asia gains on Tuesday were led by benchmarks in Singapore…
