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Monday Morning Briefing: Asian Shares Rise On French Election; Gold Sinks

Your Monday morning briefing: SGX Nifty edges higher. 

A man riding a bicycle looks at an electronic stock board displaying the closing figure of the Nikkei Stock Average at a securities firm in Tokyo, Japan. (Photographer: Akio Kon/Bloomberg)
A man riding a bicycle looks at an electronic stock board displaying the closing figure of the Nikkei Stock Average at a securities firm in Tokyo, Japan. (Photographer: Akio Kon/Bloomberg)

Asian shares rose while U.S. stock futures advanced on improved risk appetite after centrist Emmanuel Macron took the lead in the French presidential election.

The euro jumped the most in a month, and the yen retreated. U.S. stocks futures rose while safe-haven gold fell most in more than seven weeks as Macron and far-right nationalist Marine Le Pen won the first round of voting. Oil hovered near $50 a barrel.

SGX Nifty futures indicate a weak start for Indian equities after the broader Nifty 50 Index closed lower on Friday.

Macron To Be French President?

A snap Ipsos survey late on Sunday indicated that the pro-growth centrist Macron would win by 62 percent to 38 percent for Le Pen, who wants to take France out of the euro and clamp down on immigration. The two candidates will now face off in a May 7 runoff.

U.S. markets ended Friday’s session lower ahead of the French vote, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average shedding 0.15 percent and the S&P 500 Index losing 0.30 percent.

Monday Morning Briefing: Asian Shares Rise On French Election; Gold Sinks

Oil Hovers Near $50

Oil rose for the first time in six days as a committee of Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries supported extending production cuts past June.

Compliance to the curbs in March was 98 percent, an improvement from February, Bloomberg reported citing a delegate with knowledge of the matter.

Brent crude for June settlement rose 0.8 percent at $52.36 per barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange while West Texas Intermediate for June delivery gained as much as 33 cents at $49.95 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Gold snapped its two-day winning streak to drop as much as 1.5 percent to $1,265 per ounce after the French election outcome.

Flat Start?

SGX Nifty futures rose 0.1 percent to 9,142 as of 7:00 a.m., indicating a flat start for the Nifty, which has risen in only two of the last 10 trading sessions.

Indian stocks declined on Friday, dragged down by Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. on regulatory concerns and as investors weighed a mixed start to the January to March earnings season.

Shares of Divi’s Laboratories Ltd. will be in focus today after the drugmaker received a warning letter from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration for its Visakhapatnam unit. Investors will also watch out for quarterly earnings from Reliance Industries Ltd., scheduled to be released post market hours.