Hong Kong (AFP) — Asian equities rose on Thursday in subdued trading, holding the gains recently spurred by the US-China trade thaw.
Following the Christmas lull across world markets, eyes are now on US unemployment data due later in the day, and Japanese industrial and retail data scheduled for release on Friday.
Tokyo’s benchmark Nikkei index closed 0.6 percent higher after a flat start. Shanghai put on 0.9 percent, while Seoul was up 0.4 percent. Singapore, however, was down 0.3 percent.
“Investor sentiment towards the global economy is improving,” said Rakuten Securities chief strategist Masayuki Kubota.
Hong Kong, Sydney and Wellington were closed for a public holiday.
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“With the… tech sector giants leading the way, investors are showing no fear as the market remains underpinned by the thawing in the US-China trade squabble and easy central bank policy,” Stephen Innes, chief Asia market strategist at AxiTrader, said in a report.
Volumes are typically light during the holiday season, and the muted activity in Asia followed sleepy Christmas Eve sessions in many world markets.
“No news being good news, Asia should maintain… gains ahead of a US session likely to be positive,” Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst for Asia-Pacific at OANDA, wrote in a note earlier in the day.
In oil markets, the main contracts traded higher as the commodity remained strong thanks to trade optimism as well as the OPEC+ output reduction agreement.
