Asian equity markets ended mostly in green on Thursday, although gains remained modest outside Japan, where the benchmark Nikkei average jumped over 3 percent on its first trading day of the New Year. Regional underlying sentiments remained supported by rallying oil prices, encouraging services sector data from China and the record closing highs overnight on Wall Street. Japanese shares rallied as the yen remained relatively weak on global growth optimism and oil prices surged to their highest level since December 2014. Further, Chinese shares ended higher, aided by data showing Chinese services sector activity grew at its best pace in more than three years in December. The latest survey from Caixin showed that the services sector in China continued to expand in December, and at an accelerated pace with a PMI score of 53.9, up from 51.9 in November.
Asian Indices | Last Trade | Change in Points | Change in % |
Shanghai Composite | 3,385.71 | 16.60 | 0.49 |
Hang Seng | 30,736.48 | 175.53 | 0.57 |
Jakarta Composite | 6,292.32 | 40.84 | 0.65 |
KLSE Composite | 1,803.45 | 10.66 | 0.59 |
Nikkei 225 | 23,506.33 | 741.39 | 3.26 |
Straits Times | 3,501.16 | 36.88 | 1.06 |
KOSPI Composite | 2,466.46 | -19.89 | -0.80 |
Taiwan Weighted | 10,848.63 | 47.06 | 0.44 |