Asian Market Update – Friday: Asian tech shares gains on strong earnings from the US while euro takes a hit
The Big Question: Can good earnings justify the high valuations?
Major stock indexes in Asia traded higher on the last trading day of the week as strong earnings from US tech giants Google, Microsoft, and Amazon beat market expectations and rallied on Wall Street yesterday.
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The gains in tech also contributed to gains in the overall S&P 500 Index, tacking on 0.1 percent to trade near its all-time-high from last week.
Meanwhile, the euro took a hit against most other major currencies as the European Central Bank announced that loose monetary policy will be coming to an end, although at a much slower pace than markets had expected. As a consequence, the euro had its biggest one-day drop against the dollar in 16 months.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 surged 1.24 percent to 22,008 after midday, following the positive note from Wall Street the day before.
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In China, the Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.3 percent to 3,419, while shares in Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index tacked on 0.33 percent to 28,422.
South Korea’s Kospi Index rose 0.71 percent after midday, trading at 2,498.
As the only looser among the major stock markets in Asia-Pacific, Australia’s ASX 200 lost a slight 0.22 percent to 5,903 at the end of the trading day in Australia.
Main Market Movers – Mid-day Asian Trading Session
| Indexes | Value at Midday | Daily Change |
| Japan- Nikkei 225 | 22,008 | 1.24% |
| China-Shanghai Composite Index | 3,419 | 0.3% |
| South Korea-KOSPI | 2,498 | 0.71% |
| Hong Kong –Hang Seng | 28,422 | 0.33% |
| Australia-ASX 200 | 5,903 | -0.22% |
Cryptocurrencies
Prices of the main cryptocurrencies were not much changed Friday morning in the Asian trading session with only minor changes seen in bitcoin, litecoin, and ethereum.
At midday in Asia, bitcoin was down by a slight 0.85 percent to $5,825, following gains on Wednesday and Thursday.
Ethereum traded on a positive note Friday morning, gaining a slight 0.85 percent to just below the $300 level. Ethereum briefly traded above $300 on Tuesday, but has since fallen back and consolidated just below that level.
Currencies
The Japanese yen lost 0.14 percent against the US dollar at midday Friday, trading at 114.80 per dollar.
The Chinese yuan lost 0.27 percent against the US dollar, trading at 6.6546 per dollar.
The Australian dollar lost 0.24 percent on the dollar, changing hands at 1.389 per dollar at the end of the trading day in Australia. The Aussie dollar has now been stuck in a strong downtrend against the US dollar since Monday this week.
Commodities
WTI Oil was down 0.23 percent to $52.56 per barrel.
Brent Crude lost 0.32 percent to $59.25 per barrel.
Gold lost 0.09 percent to $1,265 an ounce
Business News across Asia
In Singapore, media is reporting that Asia now has more billionaires than the United States. According to a report from UBS, Asia now has a total of 637 billionaires, while the US has 563. China, unsurprisingly, led the growth in the number of billionaires with an increase of 27 percent from last year. Singapore came in second with an increase of 24 percent from the year before.
People familiar with Singapore will probably guess that the large increase is mostly due to immigration of high net-worth individuals, largely from Mainland China, meaning that China is by far the top producer of new billionaires in the world.
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