Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading up in the early deals on Friday, with some of the markets reversing initial losses after the Chinese stock market rose in volatile trade. The China Securities Regulatory Commission has subsequently suspended its controversial circuit breaker system amid concerns the system is contributing to the recent volatility. Meanwhile, Chinese stocks gained in volatile trading after the government suspended a controversial circuit breaker system and the central bank moved to stabilize the yuan with its reference rate. The People's Bank of China set the yuan's midpoint rate stronger for the first time in nine days after allowing it to sharply depreciate in recent session. Among the other Asian markets, Nikkei, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Taiwan are also higher. Bucking the trend, Indonesia is down with modest losses.
Nikkei 225 surged 6.56 points or 0.04% to 17,773.90, Hang Seng gained 227.91 points or 1.12% to 20,561.25, Straits Times increased 23.16 points or 0.85% to 2,753.07, Taiwan Weighted strengthen 30.86 points or 0.39% to 7,882.92, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI added 3.84 points or 0.23% to 1,658.97, Shanghai Composite spurt 74.56 points or 2.39% to 3,199.56, and KOSPI Index was up by 3.22 points or 0.17% to 1,907.55.
On the flip side, Jakarta Composite was down by 7.57 points or 0.17% to 4,522.88.