Asian markets traded higher on Friday while other Asia Pacific markets, including Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore and Indonesia, were closed for a public holiday.
Asian markets
“Recent Chinese data is boosting confidence in the Chinese economy while earnings have not been bad either,” said Yukino Yamada, senior strategist at Daiwa Securities.
- The Nikkei 225 in Japan rose 0.66% as many of the tech stocks posted gains, with Nintendo shares jumping 15.25%.
- The Topix index was up 0.31%. South Korea’s Kospi index, meanwhile, rose 0.31%.
- The Shanghai composite was up 0.71% while the Shenzhen composite traded up 0.38%.
Currency Markets
- In the currency market, the dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of its peer, traded at 97.376, climbing from levels near 96.900 earlier in the week.
- The Japanese yen traded at 111.92 to the dollar, weakening from levels near 111.20 in the previous week.
Commodities
- Oil prices ticked up overnight following declines in crude exports from Saudi Arabia.
- Global benchmark Brent rose about 35 cents to $71.97 a barrel while U.S. crude was up 24 cents to $64.
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Saudi crude oil exports fell by 277,000 barrels per day in February from a month earlier, Reuters reported.
