Asian stocks were mixed on Friday after technology shares propelled US benchmarks to fresh record highs.
South Korea’s KOSPI sank at the open as a number of companies traded without the right to the next dividend payment, although it bounced back later.
Ex-dividend trading also held back Japanese stocks.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The MSCI Asia-Pacific Index rose 0.5 percent to 171.08, up 0.6 percent for the week.
Investors are pushing the MSCI ACWI Index of global stocks toward a more-than 8 percent advance in the final three months of this year, a quarterly performance only bettered a handful of times in the past decade.
While a strong US consumer has helped underpin that rally, investors have said that key going into next year would be whether the US-China trade deal does get signed and whether that then provides another engine for growth.
“A lot of robust sentiment toward the end of 2019 — but we need to see that translate into the underlying real economy going into 2020,” Cornell Capital LLC partner Ann Berry said on Bloomberg TV. “It’s astonishing that you’ve had a period of rate cuts that we have have seen, and yet that investment in capital goods has not gone up in the way that you’d expect.”
In Taipei, the TAIEX rose 0.75 percent to 12,091.59, up 1.11 percent for the week.
Japan’s TOPIX rose 0.1 percent to 1,733.18, up 0.01 percent for the week. The Nikkei slipped 0.4 percent on Friday, paring its weekly gains to 0.009 percent.
The KOSPI on Friday rose 0.3 percent after sliding as much as 0.9 percent earlier to close at 2,204.21, virtually unchanged for the week.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.4 percent on Friday to eke out a 0.1 percent weekly gain.
India’s SENSEX rose 1 percent on Friday, but was down 0.3 percent for the week. The NIFTY 50 also rose 1 percent on the day, but was down 0.2 percent for the week.
The Philippine Stock Exchange on Friday slipped 0.3 percent, but was up 0.5 percent for the week.
The Jakarta Stock Exchange on Friday added 0.2 percent, bringing its weekly gains to 0.7 percent.
Hong Kong stocks closed at a five-month peak on Friday as investors cheered a rebound in China’s industrial profits for last month, while hopes that Beijing and Washington will soon sign a trade deal aided sentiment.
The benchmark Hang Seng Index (HSI) ended up 1.3 percent at 28,225.42, the highest closing level since July 26, while the China Enterprises Index (HSCE) gained 1.4 percent to 11,194.55.
For the week, the HSI gained 1.3 percent, while the HSCE added 1.5 percent. Both indices recorded a fourth straight weekly gain.
Profits at China’s industrial firms last month grew at the fastest pace in eight months, breaking a three-month declining streak, as production and sales quickened, but broad weakness in domestic demand remains a risk for earnings next year.
China said it was in close contact with the US on signing a “phase one” trade deal, and that both sides were still going through necessary procedures before the signing.
Another factor driving the markets was a Reuters report that said China had called on its biggest state firms to take a more active role in Hong Kong, including stepping up investment and asserting more control of companies there.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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