By Gina Lee
Investing.com – Asian stocks rose on Monday morning, boosted by renewed hopes of a COIVD-19 vaccine after AstraZeneca (LON:AZN) resumed phase 3 trials, but the buoyancy was subdued ahead of ahead of central bank meetings in Japan, the U.K. and the U.S later in the week.
The British drugmaker said on Saturday that it had resumed U.K. clinical trials of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, co-developed with the University of Oxford and one of the most advanced in development, after the U.K.’s Medicines Health Regulatory Authority (MHRA) gave its approval. The trials were suspended during the previous week after a patient participating in the U.K. trials came down with an unspecified illness and cast doubt on the vaccine’s rollout time.
Another pharmaceutical company, this time in the U.S., added to the anticipation a day later. Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) CEO Albert Bourla said that the company’s own candidate, co-developed with German drug maker BioNTech, has a “good chance” of submitting key data from late-stage trials to the FDA by the end of October, and once approved, could be rolled out to Americans by the end of the year. Bourla added that the company has already begun to produce the vaccine.
But memories of three U.S. tech stock selloffs in less than two weeks during the previous week led some investors to strike a cautious note.
“With no clear assured path to economic recovery and release from the grips of COVID-19 and with the added geopolitical risks of the fast-approaching U.S. presidential election and then the Brexit deadline at year-end, we expect broad market sentiment to remain fragile for the foreseeable future,” First Abu Dhabi Bank chief economist Simon Ballard told Bloomberg,
Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.60% by 11:06 PM ET (4:06 AM GMT). Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party will vote in a new leader Monday. Yoshihide Suga is widely expected to win by a landslide, putting him in prime position to replace incumbent prime minister Shinzo Abe.
South Korea’s KOSPI jumped 1.18% and in Australia, the ASX 200 rose 0.66%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was up by 0.61%.
China’s Shanghai Composite gained 0.40% and the SZSE Component rose 1.10%. Tik Tok announced that Oracle Corp (NYSE:ORCL) as the winning bidder for its U.S. operations, with the latter beating an offer from Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT).
Meanwhile, investors await Chinese industrial production and retail sales data, due out on Tuesday.
On the financial front, the Bank of Japan and Bank of England will hand down their respective policy decisions on Thursday. The U.S. Federal Reserve will also meet for its policy meeting on Wednesday, with the Fed widely expected to retain its dovish stance on policy.