Shares gain as Evergrande says it will make interest payment

World shares and U.S. futures advanced Wednesday after Chinese developer Evergrande said it intends to make an interest payment on its debt that is due Thursday.

Shares rose in Paris, Frankfurt and Shanghai but fell in Tokyo.

Markets have been rattled by Evergrande’s struggle to meet debt payments and uncertainty over what if anything the Chinese government might do to limit the impact of a possible default.

Evergrande, one of China’s biggest private sector conglomerates, said it will make a payment due Thursday on a 4 billion yuan ($620 million) bond denominated in Chinese yuan.

A company statement gave no indication whether that meant any change in the payment. The bond has a 5.8% interest rate, which would make the normal amount due 232 million yuan ($36 million) for one year.

Evergrande gave no information on possible future payments including a bond denominated in U.S. dollars in March.

“Although the banks are yet to declare Evergrande in technical default, the silence from Beijing is adding to market nervousness,” Venkateswaran Lavanya of Mizuho Bank said in a commentary.

Germany’s DAX gained 0.6% to 15,444.30 and the CAC 40 in Paris added 1.2% to 6,630.19. The FTSE 100 in London surged 0.9% to 7,042.98. U.S. futures also rose, with the contract for the Dow industrials up 0.6%. The future for the S&P 500 gained 0.4%.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury was steady at 1.33%, up from 1.32% late Tuesday.

In Asia, Tokyo fell but other major regional benchmarks were mostly higher, trimming early losses.

The Bank of Japan kept its ultra-supportive monetary policy unchanged, as expected.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index lost 0.7% to 29,639.40, while the Shanghai Composite index gained 0.4% to 3,628.49. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.3% to 7,296.90. Shares fell 2% in Taiwan and also declined in Singapore. But benchmarks rose in India, Indonesia and Malaysia.

Markets in South Korea and Hong Kong were closed for holidays.

The Federal Reserve is expected this week to send its clearest signal yet that it will start reining in its ultra-low-interest rate policies later this year, the first step toward unwinding the extraordinary support it’s given the economy since the pandemic struck 18 months ago.

Wednesday’s Fed policy meeting could lay the groundwork for an announcement of a pullback in November.

On Tuesday, nerves appeared to steady after a selloff on Monday.

The S&P 500 edged 0.1% lower, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average also shed 0.1%.

The Nasdaq composite rose 0.2%, and small company stocks also managed gains. The Russell 2000 index rose 0.2%.

In other trading, U.S. benchmark crude oil picked up $1.04 to $71.53 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It gained 35 cents to $70.49 on Tuesday.

Brent crude oil, the standard for international pricing, added 98 cents to $75.34 per barrel.

The U.S. dollar rose to 109.42 Japanese yen from 109.23 yen late Tuesday. The euro strengthened to $1.1732 from $1.1726.