Asian shares rose on Wednesday but the euro was capped as investors concluded a European summit this week will fail to take concrete action to resolve the euro zone debt crisis, with Germany staunchly opposed to sharing the region’s debt burden.
The dollar retreated from earlier highs against a basket of major currencies while commodities eased in choppy trade, reflecting reluctance by investors to place bets in either direction before the June 28-29 summit in Brussels.
“With expectations so low for any breakthroughs from the summit, it’s hard to take any aggressive positions either way,” said Tetsu Emori, a Tokyo-based commodities fund manager at Astmax Investments.
“But panic-selling momentum has clearly receded, suggesting more investors are looking for prices to pick up given that many asset classes have fallen to levels that could be snapped up quickly if fund managers started pouring money in again,” he said. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.9 percent, driven higher mostly by short covering and bargain hunting after recent pullbacks. Japan’s Nikkei average edged up 0.4 percent.
Chinese shares outperformed their Asian peers, with the Hang Seng Index jumping more than 1 percent on strength in the Chinese consumer sector spurred by jeweller Chow Tai Fook’s better-than-expected annual earnings and on gains in the banking sector.
