Most Asian stock markets rose on Friday, with Hong Kong shares on track to finish their best week since November, though Japanese stocks shot lower as the yen strengthened against the dollar.
Sentiment in Asia on Friday was helped by a positive session on Wall Street, where stocks gained despite weaker-than-expected readings on retail sales and jobless claims.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.8%, South Korea’s Kospi gained 0.9% and the Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.5%.
The disappointing U.S. data weighed on the dollar, which fell 0.4% against the yen overnight and extended its losses in Asian trading hours. The yen’s rise weighed on Japanese stocks, reversing gains earlier in the session and pushing the Nikkei Stock Average down 1.6%.
Hong Kong’s benchmark Hang Seng Index was up 0.4% Friday, and 2.9% higher for the week.
Data from China was also in focus on Friday. Its official consumer-price index rose 2.5% on-year last month, the same as December’s increase, but a touch higher than a 2.3% gain forecast by economists.
As U.S. markets are closed on Monday for a holiday, traders said that foreign investors did not want to hold onto big positions before a long weekend.
Toyota lost 1.3% and Sony Corp. declined 1.5%.
Kirin tumbled 9.2%, the most since March 2011. Net income will probably fall 43 to 49 billion yen ($481 million) this year, Kirin said in a statement yesterday. That compares with the 60.6 billion yen average of analysts’ estimates.
In Sydney, shares in Rio Tinto lost 0.6% after the world’s second-largest iron ore miner swung to an annual profit thanks to cost-cutting and asset sales. The company reported a net profit of US$3.7 billion in the year through Dec. 31, rebounding from a net loss of US$3 billion the year before.
Shares in Newcrest Mining, meanwhile, fell 1% in Sydney, after the gold miner said that its first-half net profit fell due to a plunge in the price of the precious metal. The company said that its net profit in the six months through December was 40 million Australian dollars (US$36 million), down from A$323 million a year earlier.
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