Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading up in the early deals on Friday on the positive cues overnight from Wall Street, lifting sentiment. Nevertheless, investors are awaiting the closely watched US monthly jobs report for the month of May to be released later in the day, which could indicate whether the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates later this month. The Labor Department report is expected to show an increase of about 158,000 jobs in May, while the unemployment rate is expected to edge down to 4.9 percent. Meanwhile, Japanese stocks rose supported by gains on Wall Street and a sharp jump in index-heavy Fast Retailing after the clothing retailer posted strong monthly sales. Among the other Asian markets, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Taiwan are up with modest gains. Bucking the trend, Shanghai and South Korea are edging lower.
Nikkei 225 added 39.39 points or 0.24% to 16,601.94, Hang Seng surged 57.85 points or 0.28% to 20,917.07, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI gained 4.96 points or 0.30% to 1,635.49, Straits Times increased 12.77 points or 0.46% to 2,807.86, Jakarta Composite jumped 10.56 points or 0.22% to 4,843.78, and Taiwan Weighted was up by 14.02 points or 0.16% to 8,570.04.
On the flip side, Shanghai Composite dropped 0.70 points or 0.02% to 2,924.53, and KOSPI Index was down by 2.56 points or 0.13% to 1,982.55.