09/02/2026

MONDAY | FEB 9, 2026

/thesuntelegram FOLLOW / Malaysian Paper

ON TELEGRAM m RAM

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Takaichi landslide victory sets markets fluttering

Australian opposition parties reunite SYDNEY: Australia’s right-leaning opposition coalition reunited yesterday after splitting in a public spat over the legislative response to the Bondi Beach shooting. The centre-right Liberal Party and the rural focused Nationals, which have jointly governed Australia for most of the past century, said they had overcome their differences. “The coalition is back together and looking to the future, not the past. We’re squarely focused on representing the Australian people and fighting for their needs,” Liberal Party leader Sussan Ley told a news conference in Canberra. “I acknowledge that this has been a difficult time. It has been a difficult time for millions of our coalition supporters and many other Australians who rely on our two great parties to provide scrutiny and national leadership,” she said. The two-party conservative alliance collapsed less than three weeks ago in a row over hate crime laws introduced after the Dec 14 shooting that killed 15 people. It was the coalition’s second divorce following a brief separation after they suffered a crushing general election defeat in May last year. In the latest dispute, Ley forced three National Party senators to resign from senior coalition posts after they voted against the hate speech laws in defiance of an earlier agreement between the parties to back the legislation. The trio said they opposed the hate speech laws because they were concerned its scope may be too broad. The disagreement rapidly escalated into a breakup of the coalition. The Liberal Party leader said both parties had patched up with an agreement that neither party could overturn decisions taken by the coalition’s joint “shadow Cabinet” of senior lawmakers. They also agreed that National Party lawmakers including the three senators who had resigned could return to the shadow Cabinet next month, local media said. The next general election must be held by May 2028 after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s centre-left Labor Party won power by a wide margin last year. – AFP Push for Swiss register of rogue bankers GENEVA: Switzerland should maintain a public register of bankers who have violated their professional duties, as it continues to rebuild its reputation following the Credit Suisse collapse, the director of private bank Julius Baer said. “Registering financial market participants has clear advantages,” Stefan Bollinger told Swiss German newspaper Neue Zurcher Zeitung . “This prevents bad actors from simply crossing to the other side of the street and carrying on as if nothing had happened.” Bollinger pointed to the US, UK, Hong Kong and Singapore as already having similar systems in place, and believes Switzerland would benefit from this in the long term. “Switzerland already has a due diligence system at the management level; it should consider expanding it further, as is the case in other countries,” he said. Bollinger said there was a need for Switzerland to restore its reputation following the collapse of Credit Suisse. Asked about UBS, Switzerland’s biggest bank, relocating to the US, Bollinger said “Swissness” continues to be a mark of quality. – Reuters

said Chris Scicluna, the head of research at Daiwa Capital Markets Europe. Takaichi, a devotee of the “Abenomics” stimulus policies of the late premier Shinzo Abe, has pledged a proactive fiscal policy funded largely through bond issuance. She came to office at a low point in power and popularity for her Liberal Democratic Party, which has ruled Japan for most of the post-World War Two period, forcing her to bargain with opposition parties with even more liberal fiscal platforms. “The administration’s foundation will become much more stable, making it easier for expectations to build around advancing economic policy,” said Kota Suzuki, a strategist at Nomura Asset Management. “Because there will no longer be a need to actively seek the opposition’s cooperation, there will be less pressure for giveaway-style fiscal expansion.” With polls already indicating a decisive LDP win, Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 Index set an all-time high of 54,782.83 on Tuesday. Big winners of late include sectors like defence, artificial intelligence and chips that have been singled out by Takaichi for targeted investment. But prospects for more government outlays have unsettled investors already concerned about Japan’s debt burden, the largest in the developed world. Those worries came to a head on Jan 20, when rates across the JGB yield curve shot to multi-decade or even record highs after Takaichi called for the snap election and

embraced suspending the sales tax on food. The yen has also been punished, losing about 6% against the dollar since Takaichi’s selection as prime minister in October and plumbing record lows against the euro and Swiss franc. Only threats of joint currency market intervention with the United States have arrested the yen’s slide. The size of Takaichi’s victory means “the Takaichi trade will revive, which means JGB yields will be under upward pressure. The move of the yen, stocks and bond yields will affect each other. If the yen falls rapidly, yields will tend to rise”, said Naoya Hasegawa, the chief bond strategist at Okasan Securities. While JGB yields remain elevated, some measure of calm has returned to the market in the past couple of weeks, as confidence grew that an emboldened Takaichi would keep her pledge of “responsible” stimulus. The past four debt auctions have seen resilient demand and 30-year JGB yields have fallen 31.5 basis points since their record high of 3.88% on Jan 20. “We assume Takaichi will continue to strike a delicate balance between proactive fiscal policy and fiscal discipline,” said Shigeto Nagai of Oxford Economics in Tokyo. “Although we think she’s determined to make the best use of the fiscal space generated by inflation-boosted tax revenue, we also believe she seriously worries about a further rise in JGB yields,” he added. – Reuters

TOKYO: Japan’s volatile financial markets must now contend with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi firmly in the driver’s seat after her decisive victory yesterday, which hands her an electoral mandate to reflate the economy. The question for investors is whether Takaichi’s electoral momentum will prompt her to expand her stimulus ambitions or if it lends her the political leeway to proceed more cautiously. Since she began her rise to become the nation’s first female premier in October, the “Takaichi trade” has pushed domestic shares to record highs while causing a precipitous selloff in Japanese government bonds (JGB) and the yen. Voters braved heavy snowfalls in Tokyo and other parts of Japan to deliver what exit polls indicated to be the most decisive win for Takaichi’s Liberal Democratic Party since 1996. “The stock market is a true believer in Takaichi, so the big win is going to be good news for equities when the markets open,” o Administration expected to be more stable, making it easier to advance economic policy without reliance on opposition cooperation

Since Takaichi became the nation’s first female premier in October, domestic shares have risen to record highs. – REUTERSPIC