(Sharecast News) - Asia-Pacific equities mostly rose on Friday, tracking overnight gains on Wall Street as easing inflation pressures and mounting expectations for US interest rate cuts buoyed investor sentiment.
Traders largely anticipated that the latest US consumer inflation reading would not obstruct the Federal Reserve from lowering its benchmark rate next week, lifting risk appetite across global markets.
"Asian stock markets saw gains, with MSCI's regional index nearing a record high, following US inflation and jobless claims reports that bolstered expectations of an interest rate cut by the Fed next week," said Patrick Munnelly, market strategy partner at TickMill.
"Key stock indices in Japan, South Korea, Australia, and Hong Kong all advanced, offsetting the mixed performance of mainland China stocks.
"Notable boosts came from chipmakers like SK Hynix, Samsung, and TSMC."
Most regional markets join global equity rally
Japan led regional gains, with the Nikkei 225 climbing 0.93% to a fresh record of 44,783.00.
Technology stocks outperformed, as Tokyo Electron jumped 5.51%, Resonac Holdings gained 3.98% and Nidec rose 3.96%.
The broader Topix index advanced 0.4% to 3,160.49.
South Korea's Kospi 100 surged 2.06% to 3,472.29, driven by sharp gains for Korea Zinc, up 14%, alongside Kakao Corporation and NCsoft, which climbed 9.35% and 8.91% respectively.
SK Hynix rallied 7% after announcing it had completed development of its HBM4 high-bandwidth memory, seen as crucial for artificial intelligence applications.
Munnelly noted that "the positive momentum on Friday followed new record highs set by the S&P 500, tech-heavy Nasdaq 100, and the MSCI global share index on Thursday."
Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index gained 1.16% to close at 26,388.16, with Baidu up 8.08%, China Hongqiao Group rising 7.02% and Alibaba Group advancing 5.44%.
Alibaba and Baidu shares rallied after The Information reported both firms are deploying in-house chips to train AI models, partially replacing Nvidia-made chips.
Mainland Chinese equities underperformed, with the Shanghai Composite dipping 0.12% to 3,870.60 and the Shenzhen Component losing 0.43% to 12,924.14.
Wuxi Huaguang Boiler Co tumbled 10.02%, Jinko Power Technology fell 9.98% and Wolong Real Estate Group dropped 8.29%.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 added 0.68% to 8,864.90, supported by gains for BSP Financial Group, up 12.75%, Regis Resources, ahead 6.42%, and Guzman Y Gomez, which rose 6.41%.
In New Zealand, the S&P/NZX 50 was flat, slipping 0.01% to 13,227.90, as Spark New Zealand dropped 2.87%, Pacific Edge declined 2.44% and SkyCity Entertainment Group fell 1.48%.
On the currency front, the dollar was last up 0.42% on the yen to trade at JPY 147.83, as it rose 0.16% against the Aussie to AUD 1.5041, and gained 0.3% on the Kiwi, changing hands at NZD 1.6785.
In commodities, Brent crude was last up 0.75% on ICE to $66.87 per barrel, while the NYMEX quote for West Texas Intermediate gained 0.59% to $62.74.
Munnelly said that "oil prices fell for a second consecutive day as the IEA predicted a larger surplus for next year, with this gloomy projection overshadowing concerns about global geopolitical tensions.
"Gold is on track to experience its fourth consecutive weekly rise."
China credit data shows softness, NZ manufacturing sector contracts
In economic news, China's credit data for August pointed to persistent softness in lending activity despite a rebound from the prior month's contraction.
The People's Bank of China reported that new yuan loans rose to CNY 590bn (61.15bn), recovering from July's CNY 50bn decline but falling well short of economists' expectations for CNY 800bn.
Total social financing, a broader gauge that includes non-bank lending, climbed to CNY 2.57trn from CNY 1.6trn in July.
Meanwhile, growth in M2 money supply held steady at 8.8% year-on-year, above forecasts for 8.6%, underscoring a still-accommodative monetary stance as authorities seek to bolster fragile domestic demand.
In New Zealand, the manufacturing sector slipped back into contraction, highlighting lingering weakness in industrial activity.
The BNZ-BusinessNZ Performance of Manufacturing Index (PMI) fell to a seasonally adjusted 49.9 in August from 52.8 in July, below its long-term average of 52.5.
BusinessNZ's Catherine Beard said the sector had yet to turn the corner toward sustained growth, noting that while new orders rose to 55.2, their highest since August 2022, production dropped to 46.6 and employment also contracted at 49.1.
BNZ's Doug Steel said manufacturers were "continuing to do it tough," adding that although the broader economic trend was upward, indicators were "often choppy around a turning point."
Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.
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