SINGAPORE — Stocks in Asia-Pacific were higher in Wednesday trade following an overnight bounce on Wall Street as optimism grew over the prospect of more stimulus.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225’s advanced 0.16% while the Topix index rose 0.21%.
Japan’s exports declined 4.2% in November as compared with a year ago, according to Ministry of Finance data released Wednesday. That was far off the 0.5% rise expected by economists in a Reuters poll.
Mainland Chinese stocks were mixed, with the Shanghai composite up 0.14% while the Shenzhen component dipped slightly. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose 0.82%.
South Korea’s Kospi traded 0.49% higher. Over in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.72%.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.81%.
Elsewhere, shares of Apple suppliers in Asia-Pacific were higher in Wednesday trade, following a Nikkei report that the Cupertino-based tech giant will increase iPhone production by about 30% in the first half of 2021.
In Japan, Alps Alpine surged 6.99% while Taiyo Yuden gained 0.32%. South Korea’s LG Display advanced 0.28%.
Hong Kong-listed shares of AAC Technologies soared 3.26%. Over in Taiwan, shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company gained 1.98% and Largan Precision jumped 3.41%. In mainland China, Luxshare saw its stock rise about 3.2%.
SMIC shares in Hong Kong drop
Hong Kong-listed shares of China’s largest chipmaker SMIC plunged about 7% as they resumed trading on Wednesday afternoon following an earlier halt.
Index provider MSCI earlier announced that SMIC’s Hong Kong-listed stock was among a list of securities set to be deleted from its global investable market indexes.
SMIC also said Wednesday that its board was aware that co-CEO Mong-song Liang intends to resign, according to a filing to the Shanghai stock exchange.
Currencies and oil
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was last at 90.414 after seeing levels above 90.6 earlier in the week.
The Japanese yen traded at 103.46 per dollar, having seen levels around 104.1 against the greenback yesterday. The Australian dollar was at $0.7557 after trading at levels around $0.751 yesterday.
Oil prices dipped in the afternoon of Asia trading hours, with international benchmark Brent crude futures down 0.26% to $50.63 per barrel. U.S. crude futures also declined 0.21% to $47.52 per barrel.
Source: CNBC