Tokyo’s benchmark Nikkei index on Friday recovered early losses to close up for a fifth consecutive session as hopes for economic measures taken by major countries offset pandemic concerns.
The Nikkei 225 index gained 0.74 percent, or 167.99 points, to 22,863.73 and advanced 4.51 percent over the week.
The broader TOPIX index was up 0.54 percent, or 8.66 points at 1,612.48. It gained 3.12 percent from a week earlier.
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“Buying sentiment was firmly supported by expectations of fiscal and monetary measures taken by major economies,” said Shinichi Yamamoto, a broker at Okasan Securities in Tokyo.
The market largely ignored negative domestic figures released on Friday, including Japan’s household spending, which in April recorded its worst drop in nearly two decades.
“The current sentiment is strong enough to digest such negative figures,” Yamamoto said.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng climbed 1.66 percent to 24,770.41, an increase of 7.88 percent for the week, while in China, the Shanghai Composite rose 0.4 percent to 2,930.80, a weekly increase of 2.75 percent.
South Korea’s KOSPI gained 1.43 percent to 2,181.87, increasing 7.5 percent for the week, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index was up 0.12 percent at 5,998.7, increasing 4.22 percent for the week.
Meanwhile, shares in Taiwan closed higher on Friday for the fifth day in a row.
Buying focused on tech heavyweights, led by contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), which pushed up the broader market throughout the session, while select old-economy stocks, such as airline firms, moved higher as investors had high hopes about the economy reopening, dealers said.
The TAIEX closed up 86.17 points, or 0.76 percent, at 11,479.40, after moving between 11,411.94 and 11,482.36, on turnover of NT$179.248 billion (US$6 billion).
The market opened up 0.22 percent to breach the 11,400-point mark on follow-through buying from a session earlier, when the TAIEX ended up 0.65 percent, and momentum persisted as investors continued to chase large-cap stocks to push up the broader market further, the dealers said.
For the week, the TAIEX rose 537.24 points, or 4.91 percent.
“It was a liquidity-driven session today as major central banks kept pumping funds into the market in a bid to assuage the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Hua Nan Securities Co (華南永昌證券) analyst Kevin Su (蘇俊宏) said.
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