Asia-Pacific shares mixed
1 min read
Stocks
Shares in Asia-Pacific were mixed in Friday trade after stocks on Wall Street cruised to new record highs overnight.
South Korea’s Kospi led gains among major regional markets as it jumped 2.8%.
Shares of South Korean automaker Hyundai Motor soared 22.82% following a local media report of a deal between the firm and Cupertino-based tech giant Apple on developing electric vehicles and batteries.
Elsewhere in Japan, the Nikkei 225 advanced 1.75% while the Topix index gained 1%. Japan’s household spending rose 1.1% year-on-year in November, according to government data released Friday. That was higher than economists’ median estimate of a 1.5% decrease.
Shares in Australia advanced, with the S&P/ASX 200 up 0.44%.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan traded 0.97% higher.
In coronavirus developments, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga declared a state of emergency in Tokyo and three other areas on Thursday in a bid to combat a rise in coronavirus infections.
The World Health Organization on Thursday warned of a tipping point in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, amid fears over more infectious variants of the virus that have contributed to a surge of infections.
