SINGAPORE — Shares in Asia-Pacific rose in Friday morning trade after stocks on Wall Street cruised to new record highs overnight.
South Korea’s Kospi led gains among major regional markets as it jumped 1.89%.
Shares of automaker Hyundai Motor soared about 15% following a local media report of a deal between the firm and Cupertino-based tech giant Apple on developing electric vehicles and batteries. The report, however, added that the deal is still pending approval.
“We understand that Apple is in discussion with a variety of global automakers, including Hyundai Motor. As the discussion is at its early stage, nothing has been decided,” Hyundai Motor told CNBC in a statement.
Other stocks in South Korea’s auto sector also saw gains, with Hyundai Mobis surging 19.7% while Kia Motors jumped 6.35%.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 advanced 1.48% while the Topix index gained 0.74%. Japan’s household spending rose 1.1% year-on-year in November, according to government data released Friday. That was higher than economists’ median estimate of a 1.5% decrease, according to Reuters.
Meanwhile, shares in Australia advanced, with the S&P/ASX 200 up around 0.4%.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan traded 0.39% higher.
In coronavirus developments, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga declared a state of emergency in Tokyo and three other areas on Thursday in a bid to combat a rise in coronavirus infections.
The World Health Organization on Thursday warned of a tipping point in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, amid fears over more infectious variants of the virus that have contributed to a surge of infections.
Currencies and oil
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 89.881 after seeing levels below 89.4 earlier this week.
The Japanese yen traded at 103.88 per dollar after weakening from levels below 103.2 against the greenback yesterday. The Australian dollar changed hands at $0.7748, having seen levels above $0.78 earlier this week.
Oil prices were higher in the morning of Asia trading hours, with international benchmark Brent crude futures up 0.39% to $54.59 per barrel. U.S. crude futures also gained 0.39% to $51.03 per barrel.
— CNBC’s Sam Meredith and Chery Kang contributed to this report.
Source: CNBC