Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading up in the early deals on Friday, tracking cues from Wall Street where the Dow recorded its biggest single day gains in three years overnight amid hopes the Fed will not hike interest rates anytime soon. On the regional front, the Japanese stock market rallied sharply, extending previous session's gains, tracking a positive lead from Wall Street. A weaker yen also contributed to the upside. Meanwhile, Chinese Shanghai Composite fell, trimming a weekly gain, amid concern recent gains have been excessive as new share offerings may divert funds from existing equities. Among other markets in the Asia-Pacific region, Malaysia, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore are up sharply. Indonesia is up with solid gains, while Shanghai is trading lower.
Nikkei 225 gained 355.38 points or 2.06% to 17,565.43, Hang Seng increased by 290.05 points or 1.27% to 23,122.26, KOSPI Index improved 27.83 points or 1.47% to 1,925.33, Straits Times strengthened by 34.78 points or 1.07% to 3,278.43, Jakarta Composite soared 37.06 points or 0.72% to 5,150.40, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI spurted by 15.53 points or 0.91% to 1,715.48 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 82.23 points or 0.93% to 8,960.86.
On the flip side, Shanghai Composite was down by 14.75 points or 0.48% to 3,042.77.