Asian shares gained on Friday as investors cheered a strong set of earnings from retailers that has sent US shares higher.
Benchmarks rose across the region, including Taiwan, Japan, China, Australia and South Korea.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 1.7 percent to 165.96, up 0.8 percent for the week.
“Improved risk sentiments in Wall Street, along with earnings outperformance from Alibaba [Group Holding Ltd, 阿里巴巴] and Baidu [Inc, 百度], may aid to fuel some upside for the Asia region into today’s session,” said Yeap Jun Rong, market strategist at IG in Singapore.
Shares of Alibaba and Baidu surged after they reported better than expected results, easing some concerns about the negative impact from restrictions to curb COVID-19 infections. Both shares continued to rise.
Gauging Japan’s economic path would be on investors’ minds as data on manufacturing, housing and employment for last month are set to be released next week. Some analysts expect the numbers to be dim because of a slowdown in exports to China during that period.
However, some optimism is also in the air, with Tokyo’s restrictions on tourists easing and the daily cap raising from 10,000 incoming people to 20,000 starting June 10.
The Japanese government, led by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, is also set to push ahead in parliamentary discussions with a supplementary budget, another possible plus for investors.
The TAIEX on Friday gained 1.86 percent to 16,266.22 points, taking its weekly gain to 0.75 percent.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 added 0.7 percent in afternoon trading to 26,781.68, rising 0.16 percent for the week.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 on Friday surged 1.1 percent to 7,182.70, up 0.5 percent weekly.
South Korea’s KOSPI on Friday jumped 1 percent to 2,638.05, falling less than 0.1 percent for the week.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng on Friday surged 2.9 percent to 20,697.36, down 0.1 percent for the week, while the Shanghai Composite edged up 0.2 percent to 3,130.24, down 0.5 percent for the week.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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