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StreetAccount Summary - Asian Market Recap: Hang Seng (0.88%), Shanghai Composite (1.24%), Kospi +0.31% as of 04:10 ET

Mar 20 ,2026

• Synopsis:

  • Asia equities traded mostly lower Friday amid thin volumes and several regional market holidays. Shanghai's main board fell while Hong Kong ended at two-week lows. Australia, Taiwan and Singapore also fell. Some gains for Shenzhen, South Korea and India. Market holidays in Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia and Philippines. For the week, most major benchmarks ended lower although there were modest gains for Singapore, Seoul, Kuala Lumpur and Taipei. US futures higher, Europe higher in early trades. US dollar edging up after overnight declines, yen and offshore yuan notably weaker, rupee breaking 93 per dollar for the first time. Precious metals staging a strong recovery, base metals higher. Crude lower with WTI at $94/bl and Brent below $108/bl.

  • Asia equities ended a volatile week on a largely down note despite the dip in oil prices overnight. Brent crude steady in Asia trade around the $107/bl mark after Israel PM Netanyahu pledged not to attack any more Iranian oil facilities and claimed Iran no longer had the ability to enrich uranium, and US President Trump said he was not going to use ground troops. Nevertheless, missile attacks continued in the Gulf region today with Kuwait and Bahrain reporting done attacks while the Strait of Hormuz remains effectively closed.

  • Some broad relief also for the region's forex this week amid renewed expectations of rate hikes to counter the surge in energy prices however the oil-exposed nations of India, Thailand and the Philippines saw their respective currencies weaken further with the rupee hitting another record low today. In other news today, China kept its 1Y and 5Y loan prime rates unchanged as expected with easing expectations dissipating further this week after stronger-than-expected economic activity figures, and data today that showed fiscal spending in Jan-Feb rose 3.6% y/y. Late Thursday, Taiwan's central bank kept its base interest rate unchanged and upped its FY26 GDP growth projection materially, although it also warned over inflation. Meanwhile, the Bank of Thailand said it is ready to act to curb baht volatility.

  • CK Hutchison (1.HK) says it is still in discussion over selling its ports business after also beating beating expectations. Alibaba's (9988.HK) Ant Group unit saw its quarterly profit almost wiped out by an increase in AI spending and a fall in fair value; company said it is targeting $100B in AI revenue in five years. New World Development (17.HK) controlling Cheng family is reportedly considering a $4B share sale as the best way to meet the company's debt obligations. Samsonite (1910.HK) said its chairman would step down; reported stronger-than-expected quarterly net income and said it was considering a dual listing in the US.

• Digest:

  • US seeks to ease energy supply concerns, Netanyahu hints at war conclusion:

    • Oil stabilizing following de-escalation signals from President Trump and Israel PM Netanyahu that no further strikes will be launched against Iranian energy infrastructure (Bloomberg, FT). Crude had spiked earlier after QatarEnergy CEO told Reuters Iranian missile strike on Ras Laffan LNG plant impacted 17% of export capacity and repairs will 3-5 years to complete. Market also sensitive to off-ramp hints with Netanyahu saying Iran no longer able to enrich uranium or manufacture missiles, and that war may end sooner than people think. Some reprieve from comments by Treasury Secretary Bessent to Fox Business that US could remove sanctions on Iranian oil stranded at sea, equivalent to about 140M barrels. Said releasing barrels to global market would help contain prices for next 10-14 days. Move would mirror sanctions waiver on stranded Russian oil, estimated at about 130M barrels. Added US could implement another release from SPR if needed. US Energy Secretary Wright also ruled out restricting US oil and gas exports, an idea that energy experts feared would backfire and push up prices (Bloomberg). Discussions about unblocking Strait of Hormuz continued with Japan, UK and European leaders issuing joint statement expressing readiness to contribute to efforts to ensure safe passage through the Strait.

  • Street Takeaways: March BOJ meeting

    • Economist takeaways from the March BOJ meeting were generally benign while leaning hawkish from Governor Ueda's press conference. Takata's endorsement of a rate hike was not regarded as a meaningful signal. Middle East developments were mentioned in the policy statement, but implications were still unclear, leaving the language elsewhere largely unchanged. Nomura noted that the economic assessment and guidance were put back in the policy statement which has not happened for a no-change decision since 2024, suggesting this could be a demonstration of the BOJ's emphasis of its rate hike stance. Most of the attention was on Ueda's comments, primarily that after rigorous debate, his impression was the majority of board members were leaning towards upside inflation risks as opposed to downside growth risks. However, signals were not strong enough to prompt changes to rate hike forecasts as the main April and June/July camps saw enough to justify their existing calls. April cohort pointed to the BOJ's normalization trajectory remaining on track with Middle East risks having little impact as yet, whereas the June/July case allows for some more time to monitor developments. Ueda said BOJ will "soon" publish new core inflation data that excludes various government cost of living relief measures as well as re-estimation of potential growth, output gap and the neutral rate. This prompted some thoughts this new information will reinforce hawkish perceptions.

  • Japan agrees on $73B of US investments in second phase:

    • Nikkei reported Prime Minister Takaichi and President Trump released a joint statement at their Washington summit that included agreement on a second round of US investments worth $73B. GE Vernova (GEV) and Hitachi (6501.JP) will invest up to $40B to build small modular reactors in Tennessee and Alabama. Also mentioned plans to build gas power plants in Pennsylvania ($17B) and southern Texas ($16B) catered for AI data centers, though companies weren't specified. Agreements were preliminary as discussions still incomplete. Statement also mentioned promising candidates for future rounds of investments, such as infrastructure development to increase US crude production (Alaska) and construction of large nuclear reactors. Japan Display LCD plant, Falcon Copper refining facility and large-scale battery storage for data centers under consideration though more time was needed to work through supply chain and profitability requirements. This tranche follows $36B worth of projects in the first phase. Separately released an action plan for collaboration on critical minerals and rare earths supply chains, focusing initially on price floors for an undefined select group of minerals (Reuters).

  • Alibaba earnings miss, targets $100B of AI revenue in five years:

    • Alibaba (9988.HK) Q3 metrics came in below FactSet consensus. Main headline was a 66% y/y drop in net income, worst since early 2024, on 2% growth in headline revenues. Profit weakness attributed to spending on AI and quick commerce. Attention largely fell to CEO Eddie Wu's announcement on the earnings call targeting more than "$100B in combined cloud and AI external revenue" over the next five years (Reuters). Cloud Intelligence revenue growth of 36% was a source of encouragement, though press takes were broadly skeptical toward the high bar. Bloomberg noted Wu didn't offer specifics on how they would achieve that goal, which requires cloud growth remaining at the Q3 pace throughout the time horizon. Alibaba viewed as exemplifying AI monetization challenges, the frontrunner among Chinese firms in terms of investing and considered well-positioned to compete in the newest battleground in agentic AI. Operators heavily promoted AI apps during LNY holidays though press presented mixed user metrics analysis. Bloomberg cited Morgan Stanley as saying Qwen usage remained well above pre-campaign levels despite intense competition. Nikkei cited MoonFox data showing Qwen DAU during peak promotion reached 22M though has since fallen to below 15M in March, well below ByteDance's Doubao ~55M and Tencent's Yuanbao ~24M.

  • Taiwan central bank ups growth outlook, warns on Iran conflict's impact on inflation:

    • Taiwan's central bank raised FY26 growth outlook to 7.3% from 3.7% given only in December, adding it expects tech exports, private investment, consumption togrow through year. Bank also held base interest rate unchanged at 2.0% in unanimous board vote Thursday due to volatility in global financial markets triggered by uncertain US trade policies, Iran war. Bank warned if conflict dragged on, could have relatively large impact on energy prices, dampen global economic growth. Raised its FY26 headline CPI forecast to 1.8% from 1.6%, core inflation forecast lifted marginally to 1.75% although both still below 2.0% target rate. Analyst cited by Reuters said unless CPI surged to above 3%, rate hike unlikely; rate cut equally unlikely given strong economic growth. Bank also noted Iran conflict negative for domestic forex market and would closely monitor capital flows to maintain financial market order.

  • Notable Gainers:

    • +19.3% 036930.KS (JUSUNG ENGINEERING): completed delivery of chip equipment that enables ALG technology

    • +8.6% 2331.HK (Li Ning): reports FY net income attributable CNY2.94B vs FactSet CNY2.65B

    • +0.8% 017670.KS (SK Telecom): KKR, IMM, Stonebridge pursue joint acquisition of 49% stake in Ulsan AI data Center from SK Telecom

  • Notable Decliners:

    • -8.9% 1910.HK (Samsonite Group): reports FY adjusted net income $293.4M vs StreetAccount $291.7M; Chairman Timothy Parker to step down

    • -6.3% 9988.HK (Alibaba Group): reports Q3 Non-GAAP EPADS CNY7.09 vs FactSet CNY11.51

    • -5.9% 2282.HK (MGM China Holdings): reports FY net income attributable HK$5.08B vs FactSet HK$5.36B

    • -1.6% 17.HK (New World Development): Cheng family considering $4B (HK$31.34B) share sale by New World Development as leading option for capital injection

• Data:

  • Economic:

    • New Zealand February

      • Trade balance (NZ$257M) vs revised (NZ$627M) in January

        • Exports +0.4% y/y vs +2.6% in January

        • Imports +12.0% y/y vs +1.9% in January

  • Markets:

    • Nikkei: Closed

    • Hang Seng: (223.26) or (0.88%) to 25277.32

    • Shanghai Composite: (49.50) or (1.24%) to 3957.05

    • Shenzhen Composite: (30.84) or (1.18%) to 2589.10

    • ASX200: (69.40) or (0.82%) to 8428.40

    • KOSPI: 17.98 or +0.31% to 5781.20

    • SENSEX: 743.83 or +1.00% to 74951.07

  • Currencies:

    • $-¥: +0.61 or +0.39% to 158.3260

    • $-KRW: +6.25 or +0.42% to 1495.2400

    • A$-$: +0.00 or +0.02% to 0.7090

    • $-INR: +0.47 or +0.50% to 93.3821

    • $-CNY: (0.02) or (0.26%) to 6.8827