The Asian equity benchmarks are trading up in the early deals on Friday, following the positive lead overnight from Wall Street and investors are indulging in bargain hunting, though the gains in most of the markets are modest amid caution ahead of the US jobs data later in the day. The Japanese market traded higher recovering from a one-month low as global bond sell-offs paused and Wall Street rebounded, while Nintendo Co soared after forecasting strong profits for this fiscal year. Among the other markets in the region, Shanghai, South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Taiwan are all in positive territory.
Nikkei 225 surged 110.41 points or 0.57% to 19,402.40, Hang Seng strengthen 194.57 points or 0.71% to 27,484.54, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI gained 6.89 points or 0.38% to 1,811.99, KOSPI Index added 0.70 points or 0.03% to 2,091.70, Shanghai Composite jumped 51.66 points or 1.26% to 4,163.88, Taiwan Weighted increased 9.95 points or 0.10% to 9,714.06, Jakarta Composite spurt 39.21 points or 0.76% to 5,189.69 and Straits Times was up by 17.85 points or 0.52% to 3,450.63.