Most of the Asian equities ended the session in the positive terrain on last trading day of the week after Greece announced that it had managed to convince a high proportion of its private creditors -- 85.8 percent -- to accept steep losses on their Greek bonds, staving off an imminent default. The ministry also said it intended to force the remaining holdouts to participate. Moreover, ease in Chinese inflation too supported the sentiments.
Meanwhile, Chinese benchmark Shanghai Composite ended up 0.8 percent on Friday, buoyed by the country’s lower-than-expected consumer price index data for February. The country’s consumer price index rose 3.2 percent on year in February, slower than the 4.5 percent on-year rise in January. While, Hong Kong shares ended higher in thin Friday trade, bolstered by financials and growth-sensitive sectors after a slew of weaker-than-expected China data that is expected to give Beijing more room to ease policy to boost growth. In addition, the Nikkei closed up 1.70 percent at 9,929.74 after trading as high as 10,007.62, as some investors pocketed gains ahead of the US February jobs data.
Asian Indices | Last Trade | Change in Points | Change in % |
Shanghai Composite | 2,439.46 | 19.19 | 0.79 |
Hang Seng | 21,086.00 | 185.27 | 0.89 |
Jakarta Composite | 3,991.54 | 23.88 | 0.60 |
KLSE Composite | 1,579.00 | 0.64 | 0.04 |
Nikkei 225 | 9,929.74 | 160.78 | 1.65 |
Straits Times | 2,969.15 | -7.23 | -0.24 |
Seoul Composite | 2,018.30 | 17.54 | 0.88 |
Taiwan Weighted | 8,016.01 | 31.45 | 0.39 |