Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading higher in the early deals on Friday tracing gains on Wall Street after weaker than expected inflation figures soothed concerns about a possible acceleration of interest rate hikes. In addition, higher commodity prices lifted resources stocks. Meanwhile, Japan’s Nikkei share average rose to three-month highs, buoyed by a surge on Wall Street. Though, China stocks fell slightly, but are poised to post their best weekly performance in almost three months as interest towards Chinese blue-chips has been building steadily ahead of MSCI’s A-share inclusion next month. Among the other Asian markets, Hong Kong, Indonesia, South Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan are also higher. The markets in Malaysia remained closed for public holiday.
Nikkei 225 rose 229.74 points or 1.02% to 22,726.92, Straits Times added 20.17 points or 0.57% to 3,557.76, Hang Seng jumped 418.62 points or 1.36% to 31,227.84, Jakarta Composite spurt 111.54 points or 1.89% to 6,019.48, Taiwan Weighted gained 88.78 points or 0.83% to 10,848.99, and KOSPI Index up by 17.8 points or 0.72% to 2,481.96.
On the flip side, Shanghai Composite was down by 2.51 points or 0.08% to 3,171.90.
