SINGAPORE – Shares in Asia-Pacific rose in trading on Friday as investors monitored the shares of Hong Kong-listed companies in sectors affected by regulation, such as video games.
On Friday afternoon in Hong Kong, Tencent shares in the city jumped 1.67%, while Netease gained 2.32%, a partial recovery after Thursday’s heavy losses.
Game stocks had fallen on Thursday as the South China Morning Post reported that the Chinese government will suspend approvals of new online games in the country. After the market closed, however, the media corrected the report to say that regulators would delay the approval process.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong-listed shares of Chinese real estate developer faced China Evergrande Group fell 0.85% as there are still concerns about the firm’s debt situation.
Hang Seng’s broader index in Hong Kong jumped 1.65%, after falling more than 2% on Thursday. Shares in mainland China rose, while the Shanghai composite rose 0.43%, while the Shenzhen component gained 0.595%.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 rose 1.1%, while the Topix index rose 1.01%. Kospi, of South Korea, advanced 0.39%.
The S & P / ASX 200 in Australia gained 0.39%.
MSCI’s broader Asia-Pacific stock index outside Japan traded 0.42% higher.
Meanwhile, the European Central Bank on Thursday announced a slowdown in the pace of net asset purchases as part of its pandemic emergency purchase program.
Overnight on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 151.69 points to 34,879.38, while the S&P 500 fell 0.46% to 4,493.28. The Nasdaq Composite fell 0.25% to 15,248.25.
Coins and oils
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, stood at 92,485 after falling earlier than 92.7 earlier in the week.
The Japanese yen was trading at 109.87 per dollar, stronger than the levels around 110.4 seen against the green dollar earlier this week. The Australian dollar changed hands at $ 0.738 after falling above the $ 0.744 seen earlier in the trading week.
Oil prices were higher in the afternoon of business hours in Asia, and international benchmark futures on Brent crude fell 0.56% to $ 71.85 per barrel. US crude futures gained 0.47% to $ 68.46 a barrel.