ECB's Monetary Bazooka Peps Up Asian Stocks

Tokyo, Mar 19 (AFP) Stocks in Asia bounced back Thursday after the European Central Bank launched an emergency plan to buy bonds in what one analyst said could be a "game changer" for the coronavirus-wracked eurozone.

Japan's Nikkei-225 led the gains, opening more than two per cent higher as the news from Europe brightened sentiment despite another black day on Wall Street.

The broader TOPIX index in Japan climbed even faster, nearly three percent up in early exchanges after the surprise announcement by the ECB of a 750-billion-euro (USD 820 billion) scheme to purchase government and corporate bonds.

The so-called Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme is temporary and will be halted when the coronavirus crisis is judged to be over "but in any case not before the end of the year", the ECB said.

"Extraordinary times require extraordinary action. There are no limits to our commitment to the euro," ECB chief Christine Lagarde tweeted.

Those comments echoed the words of her predecessor Mario Draghi, whose pledge to do "whatever it takes" to preserve the eurozone was seen as a turning point in the region's sovereign debt crisis.

The ECB's latest medicine could be "a game changer for the euro area economy and credit markets" if accompanied by fiscal action from eurozone governments, said Pictet Wealth Management strategist Frederik Ducrozet. And only an hour or so after the ECB announcement, French President Emmanuel Macron stepped in to call for exactly that.

"It is up to us European states to be ready through budgetary interventions and greater financial solidarity within the eurozone," tweeted Macron.

Australian markets also notched up small gains as traders awaited similar emergency moves by the country's central bank later Thursday. (AFP)

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