HONG KONG (AP) — Most Asian stocks saw increases on Friday, buoyed by a near-record surge in U.S. stocks, with investors largely disregarding the latest tariff threats from U.S. President Donald Trump.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index (^HSI) rose by 2.24% to 22,303.80, while the Shanghai Composite (000888.SS) gained 0.25% to 3,340.95. The Nikkei 225 (^N225) dipped 0.43% to 39,292.74. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 (^AXJO) was up 0.34% at 8,569.10, and South Korea’s KOSPI (^KS11) increased by 0.63% to 2,599.43.
Yeap Jun Rong, a market strategist at IG, noted in a report, “There are significant tailwinds for risk sentiments in the region to leverage, thanks to the positive momentum from Wall Street, a weaker US dollar, and declining Treasury yields.”
Chinese tech stocks traded on the Hong Kong stock exchange all saw gains on Friday, with shares of video game company Tencent, smartphone producer Xiaomi, and online service provider Meituan all rising more than 4%.
Renewed interest has returned to Chinese tech firms following the launch of an AI model by the Chinese company DeepSeek, which competes with OpenAI’s technologies while utilizing more affordable hardware. Additionally, firms like Alibaba have introduced new versions of their AI models in recent weeks, and Baidu announced on Friday that it would make its Ernie Bot AI chatbot available to the public for free.
On Thursday, the S&P 500 rose by 1%, coming within 0.1% of its all-time high achieved last month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 342 points, or 0.8%, and the Nasdaq composite soared by 1.5%.
U.S. stock prices increased after Washington officials indicated that reciprocal tariffs would require time before coming into effect.
In energy trading, U.S. benchmark crude rose by seven cents to $71.36 a barrel, while Brent crude, the global benchmark, increased by 17 cents to $75.19 a barrel.
In foreign exchange markets, the U.S. dollar remained fairly stable at around 152.88 Japanese yen, while the euro traded at $1.0459, showing little change.
___
AP Business Writer Stan Choe contributed to this report.
