Asian stocks put in a mixed performance on Friday, limping toward a modest weekly advance at the tail end of what has been the worst year since 2011.
Japanese shares declined, while stocks in China, Hong Kong and South Korea saw modest gains.
With the year winding down, even some longer-term bulls point to the value in bulking up on safer investments.
Plenty of event risks loom in the coming quarter, from the UK vote on the Brexit deal to US-China trade talks to the continuing showdown between US President Donald Trump and the US Congress over the budget.
“We’re heading into a period of higher volatility,” said Manpreet Gill, head of fixed income, currency and commodities strategy at Standard Chartered PLC in Singapore. “You need to have some dry powder on the side to take advantage of that. That’s where we particularly think that cash plays a bit of a role.”
Japan and China saw their final trading day of the year on Friday. Aside from any further developments on the US political front — where departures of senior officials and tensions at the White House over the US Federal Reserve have unsettled investors, upcoming purchasing managers’ indices from China and the US might be a focus in the coming week.
The MSCI Asia-Pacific Index on Friday climbed 0.6 percent to 146.03, up 0.7 percent for the week.
The weighted index on the Taiwan Stock Exchange on Friday rose 0.89 percent to close at the day’s high of 9,727.41 points, up 0.8 percent for the week.
The TAIEX this year fell 915.45 points, or 8.6 percent.
Japan’s TOPIX on Friday dropped 0.5 percent and the Nikkei 225 slipped 0.3 percent. The TOPIX fell 18 percent this year.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 on Friday rose 1 percent and South Korea’s KOSPI advanced 0.6 percent.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.1 percent on Friday, but fell nearly 1 percent for the week.
The Shanghai Composite rose 0.4 percent on Friday.
The sub-index of the Hang Seng tracking energy shares eased 0.4 percent, the IT sector was flat, the financial sector ended 0.1 percent higher and the property sector rose just shy of 0.2 percent.
The Chinese stock market also edged higher, but could not overturn an otherwise bearish year.
“Without major news stories moving the [Hong Kong] market, we saw a continuation of Thursday’s pressure, preventing a rebound,” said Linus Yip (葉尚志), strategist at First Shanghai Securities Ltd (第一上海證券).
The muted session came after a surprise drop in share prices on Thursday, which occurred after Reuters reported that Sinopec Corp (中國石化), the Chinese state-owned energy giant, suspended two top executives for incurring severe losses in trading.
The stock was the worst performer on the Hang Seng and among H-shares, losing 5.1 percent on Friday.
Additional reporting by CNA and Reuters
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