Asian Markets trade mostly higher in early deals on Friday

16 Apr 2021 Evaluate
Most of the Asian equity benchmarks traded higher in early deals on Friday, cheered up with the firm trend in US stock indexes overnight. Wall Street got bolstered after the better than expected retail sales and weekly jobless claims data indicated that the world’s biggest economy is on its steady path of recovery from the pandemics effects. The S&P 500 also soared to an all-time high, led by the real estate, health care and technology sectors. While, financial sector shares slipped a bit after US bond yield notes dropped the most since February. Technical buying after previous session loss also lifted Asian stocks. Japan’s Nikkei is extending its previous session gains amid positive global trend in stocks. However, some of the gains remained trimmed after the country reported 4,576 new coronavirus cases on Thursday as the highly contagious variants drive a fourth wave of infections. The Japanese government is set to add three more prefectures neighbouring Tokyo to the list of areas in need of stricter measures. Among the Asian markets, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong, and China are in positive territory. Bucking the trend, Indonesia, Taiwan, and Malaysia are in lower note.

Nikkei 225 up by 43.45 points or 0.15% to 29,686.14, Straits Times increased 8.38 points or 0.26% to 3,193.15, KOSPI Index hiked by 0.55 points or 0.02% to 3,194.88, Hang Seng rose by 15.09 points or 0.05% to 28,808.23 and Shanghai Composite increased by 15.75 points or 0.46% to 3,414.74.

On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted down 29.69 points or 0.17% to 17,047.04, Jakarta Composite slipped by 3.61 points or 0.06% to 6,075.89, and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI lower by 3.99 points 0.25% to 1,604.26.

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