SINGAPORE — Stocks in Asia-Pacific mostly traded higher in Friday morning trade, with the Chinese yuan holding on to recent gains against the dollar.
Mainland Chinese stocks were higher in early trade, with the Shanghai composite up 0.31% while the Shenzhen component advanced 0.121%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was slightly higher.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 was fractionally higher while the Topix index gained 0.24%. South Korea's Kospi rose 0.1%.
Shares in Australia bucked the overall trend as they edged down, with the S&P/ASX 200 fractionally lower.
Overall, the MSCI Asia ex-Japan index traded 0.07% higher.
In corporate developments, shares of Malaysian glove maker Top Glove were more up than 4% in morning trade.
The firm on Thursday announced its earnings for the fourth quarter and full financial year 2020, with profit after tax for the full financial year 2020 surging 417% from the previous financial year. In a press release, the firm said the "tremendous growth stemmed from a global surge in demand for gloves on the back of the COVID-19 pandemic."
Meanwhile, developments on the coronavirus pandemic could also weigh on investor sentiment. The World Health Organization's (WHO) regional director for Europe on Thursday warned of a "very serious situation" unfolding in Europe.
"Weekly cases have now exceeded those reported when the pandemic first peaked in Europe in March," said WHO's Hans Klug in a press briefing on the situation in the region.
Chinese yuan maintains strength against dollar
The onshore Chinese yuan, which strengthened significantly against the greenback in recent days, gained further to 6.7531 per dollar following levels above 6.81 seen earlier this week. It's offshore counterpart changed hands at 6.7514 per dollar.
"As the dollar has entered this dollar depreciation, this weaker dollar environment, the (yuan) has somewhat lagged." said JPMorgan Private Bank's Alex Wolf.
"When we're looking at the (yuan), we actually haven't seen a move up that much until recently," Wolf, who is head of investment strategy for Asia at the firm, told CNBC's "Squawk Box Asia" on Friday. He added that the Chinese currency likely has "more catch-up to go."
Tech shares mixed
Shares of technology firms in Asia-Pacific trade mixed Friday morning. In Japan, shares of conglomerate Softbank Group slipped 1.39% while Sharp rose 0.9%. Over in South Korea, industry heavyweight Samsung Electronics' stock gained 0.17% while Kakao advanced 0.54%.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong-listed shares of Chinese tech giant Tencent dropped 2.47% while Xiaomi jumped 2.82%.
The regional moves in tech stocks came amid renewed pressure seen in stocks of their counterparts on Wall Street. Overnight stateside, the Nasdaq Composite fell 1.3% to close at 10,910.28.The tech-heavy benchmark briefly dipped back into correction territory, down 10% from its all-time high.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average snapped a four-day winning streak as it slipped 130.40 points, or 0.5%, to end its trading day at 27,901.98. The S&P 500 dropped 0.8%, or 28.48 points, to 3,357.01.
Currencies and oil
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, sat at 92.931 after falling from levels above 93.3 earlier in the trading week.
The Japanese yen traded at 104.82 per dollar, having strengthened from levels above 105.5 against the greenback seen earlier this week. The Australian dollar was at $0.7316, in a trading week that has seen it swinging between levels below $0.729 and above $0.732.
Oil prices were little changed in the morning of Asian trading hours, with international benchmark Brent crude futures up slightly at $43.32 per barrel. U.S. crude futures sat flat at $40.97 per barrel.
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September 18, 2020 at 06:36AM
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Asia-Pacific markets mostly edge up; Chinese yuan holds gains against dollar - CNBC
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