Japan’s Nikkei set to breach 37,000

Index provider MSCI has raised India’s weightage in its Global Standard index to 18.2% in its February review, a record high, according to Reuters.

The report added that India’s weightage in the index has nearly doubled since November 2020.

MSCI said that it had added five Indian securities to the index in the February review. In total, MSCI will add 24 securities to the index and remove 101 securities.

Most notably, 66 China securities were taken off the index, with only five added. The changes will take effect on Feb. 29, after market close.

— Lim Hui Jie

Shares of Japanese pharmaceutical company Otsuka Holdings plunged as much as 10.65% on Tuesday, breaking ranks with the broader uptrend on the Nikkei 225.

This comes after the company reported that its drug AVP-786 did not achieve a “statistically significant difference” compared to the placebo in phase 3 trials. AVP-786 was meant to treat agitation associated with dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease

Otsuka said the symptom is reported in approximately half of all patients with Alzheimer’s dementia, and is a consistent predictor of nursing home admission.

Due to this, the company also expects to record an impairment loss of about 115 billion yen ($770 million) in AVP-786 in the fourth quarter.

Shares of Japanese investment holding company SoftBank jumped as much as 10.2% as Arm shares continued their rally into a second week.

The chip designer saw its shares soar 29% on Monday. It has gained 93% since it reported quarterly financials on Feb. 8. SoftBank holds about 90% of Arm’s outstanding stock.

With the rise, SoftBank is the largest gainer on the Nikkei on Tuesday, with the index also gaining almost 2% and leading gains among Asian markets.

Japan’s corporate goods price index rose 0.2% in January from a year ago, beating the 0.1% expected by economists polled by Reuters. That compares with the revised 0.2% growth rate for December.

On a month-on-month basis, corporate inflation in Japan remained flat, slowing from the 0.3% seen in December.

The CGPI measures the price changes of goods traded within the corporate sector.

— Lim Hui Jie

A slump in foreign direct investments, plummeting inflation levels and a shake up in the stock market, has put pressure on the Chinese economy, causing several investors to turn cautious on the Asian powerhouse as it marks the start of the Year of the Dragon.

“I’m still positive and optimistic on China right now. However, I think that the cyclical upturn has been much slower than I expected. I don’t want to be binary and say China is collapsing – because it is not. I believe the strength of the economy has been a little weaker, but it is still recovering and still growing,” he told CNBC Pro.

Elsewhere, Morningstar’s analysts see that “China equities are relatively still cheap,” naming sectors – and stocks – they like right now.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Amala Balakrishner

Goldman Sachs has identified three “attractive” value stocks that could see significant share price appreciation over the next 12 months.

The Wall Street bank said all three under-the-radar companies stand out amongst their peers for their cheap valuations compared to earnings growth prospects.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Ganesh Rao

January’s jobs report showed hourly earnings rising 4.5% year over year, but that doesn’t mean a new bout of inflation is around the corner, according to JPMorgan Asset Management chief global strategist David Kelly.

The strategist said at the Exchange ETF conference on Monday that, if anything, American workers aren’t pushing hard enough for raises, which is helping inflation fall.

“If you want to understand why we’re having inflation come down at such a full…