Asian shares track Wall St gains but China worries weigh
Asian shares edged up on Friday, building on Wall Street’s positive lead after a set of strong U.S. corporate earnings, although worries about the Chinese economy capped gains.
Oil prices were at multi-year highs, a drag on growth in energy-importing markets in north Asia, but good news for some energy-exporting markets in Southeast Asia.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan gained 1.07%, and was set for a 1.7% weekly gain, which would be its best weekly performance since early September, while Japan’s Nikkei surged 1.81%, led by tech stocks.
Taiwan’s Taiex leads gains in Asia-Pacific as TSMC shares soar following earnings beat
Shares in Asia-Pacific rose on Friday following overnight gains on Wall Street with the S&P 500 jumping nearly 2%.
The Taiex in Taiwan surged 2.4% on the day to 16,781.19, leading gains among the region’s major markets, as shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company rose 4.71% following an earnings release a day earlier.
Japan's Nikkei hits 2-week high on tech boost, marks 1st weekly gain in four
Japan’s Nikkei jumped to a more than two-week high on Friday and posted its first weekly gain in four, after overnight gains on Wall Street boosted technology heavyweights ahead of their earnings results.
The Nikkei share average rose 1.81% to close at 29,068.62, while the broader Topix advanced 1.86% to 2,023.93. The Nikkei climbed 3.64% this week, while the Topix gained 3.16%, snapping three weeks of losses.
China shares edge higher amid hopes for policy easing
Chinese A-shares edged higher on Friday, trimming losses for the week, but sentiment was cautious as investors balanced expectations of policy easing against worries of a slowing economy.
At the midday break, the Shanghai Composite index was up 0.29% at 3,568.67 points.
China’s blue-chip CSI300 index was up 0.33%, with its financial sector sub-index higher by 0.48%.
European stocks on course for best week in seven months
European stocks were headed for their best weekly performance in seven months on Friday, as investors took heart from strong earnings reports that helped ease concerns about higher inflation.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.4% by 0707 GMT, on course to end the week with a 2.3% gain, helped by a sharp rebound in risk appetite in the past two
FTSE 100 rises, set for best week since May; Rio Tinto weighs
London’s FTSE 100 rose on Friday, boosted by heavyweight energy and bank stocks, although losses in Rio Tinto after the miner cut its iron-ore shipments forecast limited gains on the main index.
FTSE 100 up 0.4%, FTSE 250 adds 0.4%
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