SINGAPORE — Shares in Asia-Pacific were mostly lower on Friday after the S&P 500 on Wall Street cruised to yet another record closing high overnight.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index declined 1.07% to close at 28,698.80.
Shares of Tencent-backed financial technology firm Linklogis surged nearly 10% from their issue price in their Hong Kong debut. Shares of Chinese tech juggernaut Tencent rose fractionally.
Mainland Chinese stocks closed lower as the Shanghai composite shed 0.92% to 3,450.68 while the Shenzhen component slipped 1.263% to 13,813.31.
The moves came as official data released Friday showed Chinese consumer and producer inflation rising in March as compared with a year ago.
The consumer price index for March rose 0.4% from last year, more than expectations for a 0.3% increase in a Reuters poll. The producer price index for March jumped 4.4% from last year, against expectations in a Reuters poll for a 3.5% rise.
In Japan, stocks bucked the overall downward trend regionally. The Nikkei 225 rose 0.2% to close at 29,768.06 while the Topix index advanced 0.39% to finish its trading day at 1,959.47. South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.36% on the day to 3,131.88.
Stocks in Australia dipped as the S&P/ASX 200 closed slightly lower at 6,995.20.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan shed 0.68%.
Overnight on Wall Street, the S&P 500 gained 0.42% to 4,097.17 — its second straight record close. The Dow Jones Industrial Average also advanced 57.31 points to end its trading day at 33,503.57 while the the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite jumped 1.03% to close at 13,829.31.
Currencies and oil
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 92.273 after an earlier low of 92.025.
The Japanese yen traded at 109.52 per dollar, following an earlier high of 109.19 against the greenback. The Australian dollar changed hands at $0.7605, off an earlier high of $0.7661.
Oil prices were lower in the afternoon of Asia trading hours, with international benchmark Brent crude futures slipped 0.81% to $62.69 per barrel. U.S. crude futures fell 0.6% to $59.24 per barrel.
Source: CNBC