“Very Close To Irrational Exuberance”: Asian Equities Break Above All-Time High As Hang Seng Clears 30,000

Following the new all-time high in US equities, the MSCI Asia Pacific Index broke through its November 2007 peak to make an all-time high in Wednesday’s trading session. This was something we noted could happen yesterday in ‘SocGen: Asian Equities Are So Awesome, A China Minsky Moment Is ‘Manageable’. The dollar weakened slightly after outgoing Fed Chairman, Janet Yellen, cautioned against interest rates rising too quickly in one of her last Q&As at NYU on Tuesday evening. The MSCI Emerging Market Index hit its highest level in six years and the Shanghai Composite rose 0.5% despite the lack of a net liquidity injection from the PBoC.
As Bloomberg notes, Asian stocks headed for a record close for the second time this month as the regional benchmark gauge surpassed its 2007 peak, led by energy and industrial stocks after U. S. equities continued their bounce from a two-week slide.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 0.7 percent to 172.70 as of 1:01 p.m. in Hong Kong. The gauge passed its 2007 closing high on an intraday basis on Nov. 9 but didn’t hold the level. Japan’s Topix index climbed for a second day Wednesday, rising 0.4 percent, after its worst week in seven months. Hong Kong’s benchmark Hang Seng Index breached the 30,000 level for the first time in a decade, boosted by China banks and energy stocks.
‘Anyone who missed the rally probably wonders if it is too late to join the party,’ Andrew Swan, head of Asian and global emerging markets equities at BlackRock Inc., said in a statement Wednesday. ‘We don’t believe it is.’

This post was published at Zero Hedge on Nov 22, 2017.