Trading alert: Asian markets up on March 8 morning

At noon Singapore was up by more than 1%.

RBS reported:

Asian markets finally traded in positive territory this morning. Sentiment was supported by news over the increasing participation rate for the Greek debt swap as well as expectations of another good employment report from the US. News that some further QE from the US is still possible was another positive factor.

At noon, China, Taiwan and Singapore were up by more than 1% while Hong Kong and Philippines, were up by 0.8%. Korea, Thailand and Indonesia traded in a range of 0.5%-0.7%. Gains in others markets were less than 0.5%. India is closed for a public holiday.

Similar to equities, Asian currencies were also supported by overnight risk on sentiment. All currencies barring the IDR traded stronger against the dollar this morning. Market participants are waiting for Bank Indonesia's policy rate decision scheduled for today.

Market players seem wary of piling on IDR longs given the somewhat erratic monetary policy stance. KRW and PHP were the outperformers gaining 0.6% each. MYR followed, up 0.4% against USD. In China, USD/CNY was fixed 22pip higher today at 6.3235 despite stronger regional peers and stronger EUR overnight.

Offshore, USD/CNH fixing followed the direction of other USD/Asia pairs as it came in 43pip lower at 6.3093; thereby widening its dollar discount against the onshore fixing to 142pip from 77pip previously.