Fears of a global banking crisis have eased after the introduction of multi-billion dollar lifelines for troubled lenders in Europe and the United States, with Asian stock markets bouncing off earlier lows.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.9 per cent, reversing earlier losses, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 added 0.5 per cent.
China’s blue-chip index added 0.8 per cent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 1.2 per cent.
Asian bank shares joined the gains, with the MSCI Asia Pacific Financials index rising as much as 0.4 per cent after earlier losses, Bloomberg reported.
Japanese banks including Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group were among the biggest gainers, rising as much as 2 per cent, Bloomberg said.
Asian markets fell on Thursday as concerns over the financial health of Credit Suisse and the fallout from the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) stoked fears of a global banking crisis.
Financial authorities around the world have been scrambling to prevent a financial crisis since the sudden implosion of SVB last week, which failed after customers withdrew funds in response to the bank’s heavy losses from selling US government bonds.
