Asian markets settled mostly higher on Friday, tracking Wall Street’s gains overnight driven by strong profit reports from Tesla, IBM and Meta Platforms. Japanese shares gained marginally as a slew upbeat data fuelled the prospect of further interest rate hikes from the Bank of Japan. Data showed that Japan's industrial output unexpectedly grew in December and retail sales hit a six-month high, Tokyo consumer price index for January increased to 3.4% from 3% in the previous month, while the unemployment rate also dropped unexpectedly to 2.4% in January. But, Seoul shares declined amid a sell-off in technology shares on concerns over China's growing AI capabilities, and US tariff worries lingered. Markets in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan were remained closed for the Lunar New Year holiday.
| Asian Indices | Last Trade | Change in Points | Change in % |
| Shanghai Composite | -- | -- | -- |
| Hang Seng | -- | -- | -- |
| Jakarta Composite | 7,109.20 | 35.72 | 0.50 |
| KLSE Composite | 1,556.92 | 4.23 | 0.27 |
| Nikkei 225 | 39,572.49 | 58.52 | 0.15 |
| Straits Times | 3,855.82 | 54.75 | 1.42 |
| KOSPI Composite | 2,517.37 | -19.43 | -0.77 |
| Taiwan Weighted | -- | -- | -- |
