Asian Markets Track Wall St Rebound
In Asia, Nikkei 225 added 2.8%, Hang Seng jumped 1.0% while S&P/ASX 200 and Shanghai Composite were little changed. Big tech stocks led US markets to close with gains
Asian Markets Track Wall St Rebound
Tokyo: Asian shares mostly rose on Thursday, encouraged by gains on Wall Street led by a handful of influential Big Tech companies.Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 soared in early trading, adding 2.8 per cent to 36,605.62, although the sharp gains were partly a reflection of earlier sharp drops. The cheap yen was a boon for some issues, as it boosts the value of overseas earnings when converted into yen. Toyota Motor Corp. jumped 2.8 per cent, while Nintendo Co. edged up 1.2 per cent.
In currency trading, the U.S. dollar rose to 142.53 Japanese yen from 142.28. The euro cost $1.1016, inching down from $1.1017. Shares in Nippon Steel Corp. were little changed after Keidanren, a group of Japan's top businesses, expressed in a letter to U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen concerns about “political interference” in Nippon Steel's proposed acquisition of US Steel Corp. U.S. Steel issues finished nearly 7 per cent higher a day earlier.
“America's investment climate will be severely tarnished if such political interference prevails,” according to the letter, which was also signed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Global Business Alliance, Alliance for Automotive Innovation and other groups. Yellen oversees the government committee reviewing the takeover, while the White House recently signaled an openness to blocking the acquisition.
In the rest of the region, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.7 per cent to 8,041.10. Hong Kong's Hang Seng jumped 1.0 per cent to 17,283.46, while the Shanghai Composite was little changed at 2,720.40. On Wall Street, the S&P 500 rallied 1.1 per cent after erasing a morning wipeout of 1.6 per cent. A majority of the index's stocks still finished lower for the day, but the performances by Nvidia and other tech stocks were enough to drive it to a third straight gain and back within 2 per cent of its all-time high set in July. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by 124 points, or 0.3 per cent, after rallying back from a drop of 743 points. The Nasdaq composite jumped 2.2 per cent.
