Market and product

Shares of petrochemical companies in Asia were trading mostly lower on Monday on lingering uncertainty over the coronavirus pandemic impact on global demand, while oil prices rose by more than $1/bbl after OPEC and its allies agreed on output cuts.

At 03:25 GMT, Asahi Kasei fell by 1.24% in Tokyo, LG Chem dropped by more than 2% in Seoul and Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical was up 2.05% in Hong Kong.

Japan's Nikkei 225 index was down 0.76%, Singapore's Straits Times index slipped by 0.09% and Malaysia's FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI index inched up 0.11%.Hong Kong markets are closed for the Easter Holiday.

Canada and most of Europe will also be closed for Easter Monday while US exchanges will reopen after they were closed last Friday for Good Friday.

US equity markets rallied last week with the Dow Jones Industrial Index posting its seventh-best weekly performance, jumping 12.7%. The S&P 500 Index had its biggest one-week gain since 1974, jumping 12.1%.

"Investors increasingly believe that the worst of the virus outbreak in key countries may have already occurred as containment measures such as lockdowns and 'social distancing' slow the virus spread," said Japan's Nomura Global Markets Research.

While the number of new daily cases on 10 April was a staggering 96,400 globally, increasingly the focus of investors appears to be on other metrics, such as the rate of change in daily new cases, which appears to be declining, it said.

"For example, new virus cases have been declining in a number of hotspot countries such as Spain, Italy and Germany, while daily death rates may be 'levelling off' in other hotspots such as New York," Nomura said.

Investors are also hoping that daily death rates may have already peaked in the US and the UK - although data over the weekend suggest a record number of daily deaths in both the US and the UK, it added.

The total number of coronavirus cases globally stood at around 1.7m as of 13 April, according to the World Health Organization.

OIL GAINS AS OPEC+ DEAL ENDS SAUDI-RUSSIA PRICE WAR

Crude oil prices climbed by more than $1/bbl on Monday after OPEC and its allies made a historic deal to cut global crude output by 9.7m bbl/day or 10%.

The deal marks the end of the price war between oil giants Russia and Saudi Arabia that sent oil prices plunging in March.

"The big Oil Deal with OPEC Plus is done," US President Donald Trump said in a Twitter post early on Monday. "This will save hundreds of thousands of energy jobs in the United States." - ICIS-