Asian shares rose on Friday, echoing a rally on Wall Street, as hopes grew for a gradual global economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The MSCI Asia-Pacific Index rose 0.84 percent to 212.79, climbing 4.4 percent from last week’s 203.83.
The TAIEX gained 0.6 percent to 15,802.40, surging 4.4 percent for the week.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 on Friday added 1.5 percent to 28,779.19, up 4 percent weekly.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 on Friday climbed 1.1 percent to 6,840.50, carrying its weekly gain to 3.5 percent.
South Korea’s KOSPI rose 1 percent to 3,120.63, soaring 4.9 percent weekly.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.6 percent to 29,388.68, up 3.6 percent weekly, while the Shanghai Composite gained lost 0.16 percent to 3,496.33, paring its weekly gain to 0.4 percent.
Mainland investors purchased a net HK$9.4 billion (US$1.21 billion) of Hong Kong stocks via the Stock Connect linking the mainland and Hong Kong, Refinitiv data showed.
That came after their buying last month hit a monthly record of more than HK$300 billion, as asset managers looked to the city for bargains.
Kuaishou Technology (快手) surged three-fold in its Hong Kong debut to become the fifth-largest listed company in the territory, driven by massive demand from mom-and-pop investors for the Chinese online video service operator.
However, worries over Sino-US tensions kept the gains in check.
The US is deliberately “creating tension” and disrupting peace and stability, China’s military said after a US warship sailed through the Taiwan Strait.
Speaking before the release of US non-farm payroll data on Friday, Venkateswaran Lavanya of Mizuho Bank in Singapore said that Asian markets were getting a lift from positive employment data from the US, which has set off a mood of “confidence about the US economy getting back on its feet.”
What appears in global data as the gradual decline in COVID-19 cases was also nurturing hopes for a rebound.
So were rollouts of COVID-19 vaccines, Lavanya said.
Wall Street was cheered by strong company earnings and optimism that Washington can reach a deal for another round of fiscal stimulus for millions of Americans.
“There are a lot of reasons to be optimistic and, obviously, there’s a tremendous amount of stimulus in the system with talks of more,” Commonwealth Financial Network head of investment management Brian Price said.
“We’re really impressed with how corporate America has come through earnings season so far,” LPL Financial Holdings Inc equity strategist Jeff Buchbinder said.
Additional reporting by Reuters, with staff writer
To many, Tatu City on the outskirts of Nairobi looks like a success. The first city entirely built by a private company to be operational in east Africa, with about 25,000 people living and working there, it accounts for about two-thirds of all foreign investment in Kenya. Its low-tax status has attracted more than 100 businesses including Heineken, coffee brand Dormans, and the biggest call-center and cold-chain transport firms in the region. However, to some local politicians, Tatu City has looked more like a target for extortion. A parade of governors have demanded land worth millions of dollars in exchange
An Indonesian animated movie is smashing regional box office records and could be set for wider success as it prepares to open beyond the Southeast Asian archipelago’s silver screens. Jumbo — a film based on the adventures of main character, Don, a large orphaned Indonesian boy facing bullying at school — last month became the highest-grossing Southeast Asian animated film, raking in more than US$8 million. Released at the end of March to coincide with the Eid holidays after the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, the movie has hit 8 million ticket sales, the third-highest in Indonesian cinema history, Film
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) revenue jumped 48 percent last month, underscoring how electronics firms scrambled to acquire essential components before global tariffs took effect. The main chipmaker for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp reported monthly sales of NT$349.6 billion (US$11.6 billion). That compares with the average analysts’ estimate for a 38 percent rise in second-quarter revenue. US President Donald Trump’s trade war is prompting economists to retool GDP forecasts worldwide, casting doubt over the outlook for everything from iPhone demand to computing and datacenter construction. However, TSMC — a barometer for global tech spending given its central role in the
Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designer specializing in server chips, expects revenue to decline this year due to sagging demand for 5-nanometer artificial intelligence (AI) chips from a North America-based major customer, a company executive said yesterday. That would be the first contraction in revenue for Alchip as it has been enjoying strong revenue growth over the past few years, benefiting from cloud-service providers’ moves to reduce dependence on Nvidia Corp’s expensive AI chips by building their own AI accelerator by outsourcing chip design. The 5-nanometer chip was supposed to be a new growth engine as the lifecycle
RSS