LONDON: World shares touched their highest in nearly two years on Tuesday as investors maintained bets that the United States and China can reach a deal to end their damaging trade war.
Looser monetary policy from major central banks like China has also helped bolster expectations for equities. “Consensus is assuming that there will be a cyclical upturn,” Stéphane Barbier de la Serre, a strategist at Makor Capital Markets. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.6%, with Shanghai blue chips gaining 1% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng up 1.4%.
The dollar stabilised against a broad basket of other currencies on Tuesday after three consecutive days of losses, with investors awaiting the release of the minutes of the US central bank meeting at end-October when policymakers had cut interest rates.