Asia bourses positive ahead of lunar new year break

Friday 02.15 GMT

Overview

Stocks across Asia are broadly higher as most of the region prepared for the lunar new year long weekend.

Hot topic

The US dollar continued to rise in Asia, still making amends for a rocky start to the week. The dollar index, a measure of the greenback against global peers, was up 0.2 per cent at 100.54.

For most of this week, the dollar index has spent time below 100 points, the first time below that level in just over a month, and fuelling speculation the support offered by the “Trump trade” was starting to wane.

The US dollar gained 0.4 per cent on Thursday, which prompted drops in other major currencies, including the yen, euro and Australian dollar.

Equities

Japan’s Topix was up 0.4 per cent, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 returned from a public holiday and rose 0.5 per cent.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.2 per cent. The Chinese and South Korean markets were shut for the lunar new year holiday, that will see most markets across the region see a truncated week of trading from Monday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average on Thursday closed above 20,000 points for the second time in history, however the broader S&P 500 benchmark retreated 0.1 per cent from a record high.

Forex

The Japanese yen was one-third of 1 per cent weaker at ¥114.92 per dollar, having fallen 1.1 per cent on Thursday. Traders digested inflation data that showed headline prices took a step back in December, but still beat economists estimates and remained in positive territory for the third consecutive month.

The Australian dollar was fractionally lower at $0.7533, trimming early losses after data showed wholesale inflation jumped in the final three months of 2016.

The Mexican peso was down 0.6 per cent at 21.3385 per greenback. The currency dropped two-thirds of 1 per cent on Thursday after Enrique Peña Nieto, Mexico’s president, cancelled his trip to Washington after US President Donald Trump tweeted that unless his opposite number agreed to pay for a border wall between the two countries, there was no point in holding the summit.

Commodities

Oil prices were subdued in Asia after strong gains on Thursday. Brent crude, the international benchmark, was down 0.1 per cent at $56.21 a barrel after a 2.1 per cent advance on Thursday. West Texas Intermediate rose 0.1 per cent at $53.84.

Gold lost 0.2 per cent to $1,186.16 an ounce, on track for its first four-session losing streak since early October.

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