Asian shares were mostly higher on Friday on hopes for additional economic stimulus after US president-elect Joe Biden takes office.
A new state of emergency in the Tokyo region to combat surging COVID-19 cases did little to dampen market optimism. The benchmark Nikkei 225 surged 2.4 percent to close at 28,139.03, its highest finish in more than 30 years.
The emergency declaration, announced by Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga for Tokyo and nearby areas, asks people to stay home and refrain from going out at night to dine and drink.
The TAIEX on Friday rose 1.64 percent to close at 15,463.95 points, climbing 3.8 percent from the beginning of the week.
South Korea’s KOSPI gained nearly 4 percent to 3,152.27, soaring 7 percent from Monday.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 on Friday edged up 0.7 percent to close at 6,757.90, adding 1.1 for the week.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng jumped 1.2 percent to 27,879.84, bringing its weekly gain to 1.5 percent.
The Shanghai Composite on Friday slipped 0.2 percent to 3,568.91, paring its weekly gain to 1.9 percent.
India’s SENSEX on Friday added 1.43 percent to close at 48,782.51 points, rising 1.9 percent from a week earlier.
Bursa Malaysia added 1 percent on Friday, but fell 0.4 percent from Monday’s close.
Regional share prices were boosted by major US stock indices surging to all-time highs.
“Asia markets tracked the Wall Street optimism for a second morning, climbing amid the sustained hopes of further fiscal injections in the US to keep the recovery on track,” said Jingyi Pan, a market strategist at IG Asia Pte in Singapore.
The S&P 500 rose 1.5 percent to a record 3,803.79. Investors were reassured by the US Congress’ confirmation of Biden’s presidential election win and a shift in control of the US Senate to the Democrats and largely moved on from the previous day’s violence and chaos at the US Capitol building.
US President Donald Trump has issued a statement saying there will be an “orderly transition on January 20th,” although he continues to claim falsely that he won.
Democratic victories in the two runoffs held on Tuesday for Georgia’s US Senate seats tipped the Senate to 50-50 split, with potential ties being broken by US vice president-elect Kamala Harris.
With Democrats fully in control of Washington, Wall Street is anticipating that the Biden administration and Congress will try to deliver US$2,000 checks to most Americans, increase spending on infrastructure and take other measures to nurse the economy amid the worsening pandemic.
“The expectations are shifting to more stimulus, sooner, which is generally better for the economy and better for the market as well,” US Bank Wealth Management senior investment strategy director Rob Haworth said.
The rally was broad-based, although the S&P 500’s technology sector notched the biggest gain, recouping losses after a pullback a day earlier.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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