(27 April 2020)DAILY MARKET BRIEF 1:Equities up on improved risk appetite

<p>Asian equities kicked off the week on a positive note following a firm close in the US on Friday.</p>
<p>Nikkei and Topix gained more than 2% after the Bank of Japan (BoJ) shortened its two-day meeting to three hours and announced to continue buying JGBs and treasury bills ‘without setting an upper limit’ and to raise its annual target on corporate bond and commercial paper purchases to 20 trillion yen to help companies find easy funding through the pandemic-led economic slowdown. The BoJ kept its policy rate unchanged at -0.10%, however, as officials believed pulling the rates lower wouldn’t help boosting demand for credit.</p>
<p>The USDJPY eased to 107.20 and the death cross formation (the 50-hour moving average crossing below the 200-day moving average) hints at further technical shorts on USDJPY before the pair recovers on improved appetite.</p>