SINGAPORE — Shares in Asia-Pacific advanced on Friday as technology shares mostly rose, following overnight gains for their counterparts on Wall Street.
Hong Kong-listed shares of JD.com soared nearly 5% following the Singles Day online shopping event, while Alibaba dropped 0.67%. Both companies set new sales records across their platforms on Singles Day.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong-listed shares of Chinese chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation dropped 4.47% after the firm said a top executive and multiple board members resigned. The Hang Seng Tech index gained 1.35%.
Other technology stocks in the region rose, with shares of Japanese conglomerate SoftBank Group up 2.58% while South Korea’s LG Electronics surged 3.83%.
Those gains came after the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 0.52% overnight stateside to 15,704.28.
Asia-Pacific markets higher
The broader Asia-Pacific markets rose on Friday.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index gained about 0.2% as of its final hour of trading. Mainland Chinese stocks closed higher, with the Shanghai composite rising 0.18% to 3,539.10 while the Shenzhen component saw fractional gains to 14,705.37.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 gained 1.13% to close at 29,609.97 while the Topix index rose 1.31% to 2,040.60. In South Korea, the Kospi climbed 1.5% on the day to 2,968.80.
Australian stocks also rose as the S&P/ASX 200 closed 0.83% higher at 7,443.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan traded 0.46% higher.
Currencies and oil
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 95.198 following its jump earlier this week from below 94.4.
The Japanese yen traded at 114.21 per dollar, struggling to recover after weakening from below 113.5 against the greenback earlier in the week. The Australian dollar changed hands at $0.7293, still off levels above $0.738 seen earlier this week.
Oil prices were lower in the afternoon of Asia trading hours, with international benchmark Brent crude futures down 0.75% to $82.25 per barrel. U.S. crude futures slipped 0.72% to $81 per barrel.
