A-share market opened higher: Shanghai Composite up 0.42%, Shenzhen Composite Index up 0.34%, ChiNext Index up 0.76%. Coal stocks extended gains; robotic actuators, insurance, precious metals and blade-cell batteries led sector advances.

Rising interest rates, now near 30-year highs, are reshaping Japan's corporate bond market: higher funding costs for issuers have pushed investors back into fixed income, triggering fresh flows. Noriaki Nomura, head of debt capital markets at Mitsubishi UFJ, said that with Japan returning to an inflationary environment corporates are prioritizing capital expenditure to drive revenue growth rather than cutting costs. As of March, corporate bond issuance totaled a record JPY16.7 tln (about $1,030bn). Although brokers compile issuance differently, most expect fiscal-year issuance to be roughly flat with last year.

Reserve Bank of India said draft rules clearly separate procedural provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) from policy and sector-specific requirements, including streamlining procedures, lowering compliance burdens and providing greater operational flexibility through an investor-friendly regulatory framework.