Following a surge in the US, where all three main indexes closed in the green, the FTSE 100 is likely to set new record highs at the open.

In overnight trading Thursday, Asian stock markets sharply recovered from recent losses as confirmations of additional Chinese stimulus boosted regional sentiment. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index led gains after Micheal Burry's Scion Asset Management was seen investing heavily in local players, which helped the index to lead gains.

The strongest performance for the day was the Hang Seng index, which increased by more than 2%. The online giants JD.com and Alibaba Group, which surged over 7% and 3%, respectively, provided most of the index's support.

Burry, who had notoriously shorted the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis, opened holdings worth over $8 million in Alibaba and JD in the fourth quarter of 2022, Scion Asset Management's latest 13F filing indicated.

The views probably reflect hope for a Chinese economic recovery and a relaxation of government oversight of the country's largest technology companies. Since November, when China started to roll back its anti-COVID policies, the Hang Seng index has increased by more than 45%.

Given that China serves as a major commercial centre for the region, its economic recovery is encouraging for larger Asian economies. Better-than-expected U.S. retail sales and inflation statistics, which probably signal further Federal Reserve interest rate rises, were overshadowed by regional markets' optimism on China.

Following a surge in New York, which saw all three main indexes close in the green, the FTSE 100 is likely to set new record highs at the open, pushing beyond the 8,000 mark.

In the US, the Nasdaq increased by 0.9%, the S&P 500 increased by 0.3%, and the Dow ended the day up by 0.1%.

After starting out in the negative, all of the benchmarks eventually moved into positive territory. For the third day running, the Nasdaq ended the day higher.

Key events today:

• US Building Permits (Jan) at 13:30 GMT.
• Initial Jobless Claims at 13:30 GMT.
• PPI (MoM) (Jan) at 13:30 GMT.

(Investing.com, Reuters.com)