SINGAPORE — Shares in Asia-Pacific rose in Thursday trade, with Hong Kong stocks leading gains.
As of its final hour of trading, the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong jumped 3.07% as shares of Chinese tech giants Tencent and Alibaba rose 5.6% and 7.28%, respectively.
Hong Kong-listed shares of Chinese Estates, formerly a major shareholder of embattled developer China Evergrande, surged 31.72% after announcing Wednesday that it had received an offer to be taken private.
The broader real estate sector also rose, with the Hang Seng Properties index jumping 1.98% to 30,506.05.
South Korea’s Kospi advanced 1.76% to close at 2,959.46 while Taiwan’s Taiex gained 1.96% on the day to 16,713.86. Shares in Australia also rose, with the S&P/ASX 200 up 0.7% to finish the trading day at 7,256.70.
The Nikkei 225 in Japan rose 0.54% to close at 27,678.21 while the Topix index dipped 0.12% to 1,939.62.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 1.87%.
Mainland China markets remained closed on Thursday for the holidays.
Overnight stateside, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 102.32 points to 34,416.99 while the S&P 500 gained 0.41% to 4,363.55. The Nasdaq Composite edged 0.47% higher to 14,501.91.
Those gains on Wall Street came on the back of rising optimism over a U.S. debt ceiling deal. Global markets have had a choppy October start so far amid fears over rising rates and inflation.
The benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury yield recently crossed 1.5% and has largely sustained above that level, last sitting at 1.5155%.
Currencies and oil
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 94.138 after touching an earlier high of 94.282.
The Japanese yen traded at 111.29 per dollar, stronger than levels above 111.6 seen yesterday. The Australian dollar changed hands at $0.7297 following yesterday’s bounce from below $0.724.
Oil prices were lower in the afternoon of Asia trading hours, with international benchmark Brent crude futures down 1.2% to $80.11 per barrel. U.S. crude futures shed 1.91% to $75.95 per barrel.
Source: CNBC