Most of the Asian equity counters are trading in the green terrain in early deals on Friday due to reassuring comments from the Federal Reserve chief. Gains, however, were modest on growing concerns about military activity in Ukraine and amid caution ahead of a long weekend. Chinese shares lost ground, dragged down by property developers as investors awaited home price data due on Friday for direction. Among other markets in the Asia-Pacific region, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan are trading modestly higher, while Shanghai is in negative territory with modest losses.
Straits Times added by 0.60 points or 0.02% to 3,253.80, Hang Seng increased by 64.23 points or 0.28% to 22,760.24, Nikkei 225 was gained by 54.87 points or 0.38% to 14,472.40, Jakarta Composite jumped 24.04 points or 0.49% to 4,897.05, KLSE Composite soared by 1.11 points or 0.06% to 1,851.65, Seoul Composite jumped by 10.61 points or 0.53% to 2,002.66 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 7.88 points or 0.09% to 8,952.04.
On the flip side, Shanghai Composite was down 2.58 points or 0.12% to 2,096.30.