Australian shares have jumped in early trade in what is likely to be another volatile month.
The ASX 200 had lifted by 94 points (or 1.9 per cent) to 5,171 by 10:45am (AEDT).
Earlier in the day, the benchmark index had jumped by as much as 2.5 per cent before losing its steam.
Many of the best-performing stocks are shopping centre owners Scentre Group (+12.3pc), Vicinity Centres (+11.1pc) and Unibail Rodamco Westfield (+6.8pc).
Commercial property stocks have taken a beating in recent weeks as their rental revenue dries up.
This is particularly true in shopping centres, which are becoming increasingly empty due to the Government's tougher social distancing policies and closure of "non-essential" businesses.
But shares in Scentre surged after confirming it is now cashed up — after obtaining a two-year unsecured bank loan which boosts its "liquidity position" to $3.1 billion.
Most of the "big four banks" have fallen by about 1 per cent, while Commonwealth Bank is the exception (rising by 0.5 per cent).
It appears the local bourse is shrugging off a weak performance from Wall Street overnight.
The industrial-skewed Dow Jones index closed 410 points (or 1.8 per cent) lower at 21,917 as the coronavirus crisis worsened in the United States and brought business activity to a standstill.
The Dow briefly turned positive in mid-morning trading before losses accelerated, suggesting some investors were bargain hunting or rebalancing portfolios at quarter's end.
"Stocks have been on a wild ride ... not surprisingly, investors are split on whether to lean into or fade the current rally," said Jonathan Golub, chief US equity strategist at Credit Suisse.
The benchmark S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq dropped by 1.6 and 1 per cent respectively.
It was the worst quarterly performance for the Dow since 1987, while it was the S&P's weakest quarter since 2008 — even when last week's massive rebound, sparked by record amounts of stimulus being pumped into the economy, was taken into account.
'Further downside ahead'
"In spite of the significant sell-off of most growth-oriented assets since mid-February, we are concerned there is further downside ahead," said Salman Baig, an investment manager at Unigestion.
"The violent market action should not be understated, but the underlying cause — an accelerating pandemic requiring large parts of the economy to shut down — is still with us."
The sell-off in recent weeks was due to fears of the coronavirus and its economic fallout, which many analysts are predicting will be worse than the global financial crisis, more than a decade ago.
European markets traded higher with Britain's FTSE and Germany's DAX up by 2 and 1.2 per cent respectively.
But the bigger picture is that European stocks had their worst three months since 2002, while the UK posted its largest quarterly drop since 1987.
As a result, economists have slashed 2020 growth expectations and investors, eyeing dismal quarterly financial reports, fear corporate defaults and mass layoffs would lead to a deep recession.
In today's economic calendar, the Reserve Bank will release the minutes of its emergency mid-March meeting, during which it cut interest rates to a record low of 0.25 per cent and launched quantitative easing for the first time ever.
The Bureau of Statistics will release data on building approvals for February.
Property analyst CoreLogic will publish its house price figures for March, which will reveal whether the COVID-19 pandemic has had any effect on property values so far.
Spot gold has dropped by a sharp 2.9 per cent to $US1,576.25 an ounce, but is still on track to post its sixth consecutive quarterly rise.
Brent crude oil has slipped to $22.71 per barrel, around its lowest value in 18 years, as a worldwide economic slowdown and travel restrictions sapped demand.
