Samsung leads Kospi’s gains, while stocks in China go limp
Asian stock markets mostly rose Thursday as investors set aside trade concerns, for now, to focus on tech-share and financial-stock moves.
Japanese stocks were subjected to muted trading, with the Nikkei NIK, +0.01% up less than 0.1% after consecutive gains of more than 1% on Tuesday and Wednesday. Still, the index managed a fifth straight gain. The dollar USDJPY, +0.18% remained around ¥112.30 during Asian trading hours, little changed compared to late in U.S. trading. The banking and insurance sectors led gains, with Dai-ichi Life 8750, +1.69% up 1.7% and Mitsubishi UFJ 8306, +1.62% up 1.6%.
Hong Kong stocks started strongly, again, though pulled back by the close. The Hang Seng HSI, +0.26% finished up 0.2% as Tencent 0700, +0.81% rose 0.8% and was up as much as 2% earlier, as the company continued to buy back stock. Insurer Ping An 2318, +0.52% — which has notable tech holdings — rose 0.5%. Elsewhere, smartphone-component makers AAC 2018, +1.07% and Sunny Optical 2382, +0.63% rose.
Mainland China stocks were about flat, with the Shanghai Composite SHCOMP, -0.06% giving way to sellers, down less than 0.1% the smaller-cap Shenzhen Composite 399106, -0.22% alternating between slight gains and losses before falling 0.2%.
Korea’s Kospi SEU, +0.65% was up 0.6% after being one of the few indexes to fall Wednesday. Samsung 005930, +2.38% was up a further 2.4%.
The benchmarks in Australia XJO, -0.33% fell and New Zealand NZ50GR, +0.17% fell slightly initially though finished up nearly 0.2%, while Taiwan Y9999, -0.24% , Singapore STI, +0.12% and Malaysia FBMKLCI, +0.17% were mixed throughout the session.