Most of the Asian equity benchmarks traded in green in early deals on Thursday, cheered with the positive cues from global indices and on continued optimism with the better than expected corporate earnings. Moreover, concerns over spread of Omicron cases trivialized, and optimism over global economic rebound grew, boosting investor sentiments. Although, some investments got on hold ahead to the US inflation data trajectory. Japanese stocks extended gains to the third straight session, mainly led by rally of technological stocks in line with the firm global tech shares. Meanwhile, pragmatic approach of government in pandemic is also appreciable, as the country is to extend the COVID-19 quasi-state of emergency in Tokyo and 12 other prefectures for three more weeks. Although, PPI of Japan rose by 8.6% on year in January, up from the projected 8.2% and from previous month’s 8.5%. While, Shanghai stocks dipped on outflow of foreign investments amidst worries over the impact of US sanctions and interest rate hikes.
Nikkei 225 up by 99.12 points or 0.36% to 27,678.99, Straight times rose by 0.16 points or 0.001% to 3,420.20, Jakarta Composite climbed by 16.43 points or 0.24% to 6,851.04, Taiwan Weighted lifted by 95.89 points or 0.53% to 18,247.65, KOSPI buoyed by 4.38 points or 0.16% to 2,773.23, and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI jumped by 10.59 points or 0.68% to 1,562.10.
On the other hand, Hang Seng down by 119.97 points or 0.48% to 24,710.02, Shanghai Composite shrunk by 3.49 points or 0.10% to 3,476.46.
