Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading up in the early deals on Friday following the overnight gains on Wall Street as better-than-expected economic data reinforced optimism in the world's largest economy. However, gains are modest in most markets as investors turned cautious ahead of the release of the closely-watched monthly US jobs report for September later in the day. Meanwhile, Japan’s Nikkei share average scaled a two-year peak, on track for a weekly gain, buoyed by the impact of a weaker currency as well as record highs on Wall Street. Among the other Asian markets, Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Taiwan are also higher. On the flip side, Indonesia is lower. The markets in South Korea and China remain closed all week for the Harvest Festival and National Day respectively.
Nikkei 225 gained 60.71 points or 0.29% to 20,689.27, Hang Seng rose 101.33 points or 0.36% to 28,480.51, Taiwan Weighted added 6.45 points or 0.06% to 10,524.72, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 0.59 points or 0.03% to 1,759.68, and Straits Times was up by 15.54 points or 0.48% to 3,277.38.
On the flip side, Jakarta Composite was down by 2.25 points or 0.04% to 5,899.66.