Modupe Gbadeyanka
By Investors Hub
Asian stocks finished broadly higher on Friday, with a weakening yen, higher oil prices, optimism over US tax reform plans, solid industrial profits data from China and encouraging results from U.S. tech companies boosting investor sentiment. Traders also took the ECB’s bond-buying cutback announcement in stride.
China’s Shanghai Composite Index rose 8.85 points or 0.3 percent to 3,416.41, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index climbed 236.47 points or 0.8 percent to 28,438.85 after official data showed China’s industrial profit growth accelerated further in September.
Industrial profits surged up 27.7 percent year-over-year in September, faster than the 24.0 percent spike in August. Moreover, the latest rate of growth was the quickest since 2011.
Japanese shares hit a fresh 21-year high, led by technology stocks after online retailer Amazon, chipmaker Intel and software giant Microsoft all posted quarterly earnings that surpassed Wall Street expectations. Google’s parent company Alphabet also performed better than a year ago.
The Nikkei 225 Index jumped 268.67 points or 1.2 percent to 22,008.45, its highest level since mid-1996. The broader Topix Index surged up 1 percent to end at 1,771.05. Exporters Honda Motor and Canon gained 1-2 percent as the dollar hit a 3-1/2-month high versus the yen.
In the tech sector, Advantest spiked 6.5 percent and Sumco advanced 3.9 percent. Banks Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and Mizuho Financial added 2-3 percent after U.S. Treasury yields inched higher Thursday, undermined by a soft auction of U.S. 7-year notes.
On the economic front, consumer prices in Japan climbed an annual 0.7 percent in September, rising for the ninth straight month but coming in well below the Bank of Japan’s 2 percent target, official data showed.
Meanwhile, Australian shares fell from near six-month highs to end a tad lower after Australia’s High Court ruled the deputy prime minister’s election invalid because of his New Zealand citizenship.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index dipped 13.14 points or 0.2 percent to 5,903.16, while the broader All Ordinaries index ended down 13.20 points or 0.2 percent at 5,969.30.
The big four banks fell between 0.7 percent and 1 percent. Macquarie Group rallied 3.9 percent after the investment bank reported record first-half profits and upgraded its earnings forecast for the full year.
Mining heavyweights BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto ended narrowly mixed, while South32 jumped 4.9 percent to its highest level in more than three weeks.
Respiratory device maker Resmed climbed around 5 percent as its first quarter profit beat forecasts. Airline Qantas Airways slumped 5.6 percent after warning of rising fuel costs.
