Asia report: Stocks jump on US AI news

(Sharecast News) - Stocks in the Asia-Pacific region ended the week mostly on an up note.

Boosting stock prices around the region was further bullish news out of the US on the artificial intelligence space.

Overnight, it was reported that Elon Musk's OpenAI had fetched a $500bn valuation as part of its latest funding deal.

That cemented its position as the most valuable privately-held company in the world.

And according to Bloomberg, Global Infrastructure Partners was in advanced negotiations to buy Aligned Data Centers for roughly $40bn, underscoring the massive amount of funds that is being channelled into the sector.

The Nikkei-225 jumped 1.85% to 45,769.50.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index on the other hand dipped 0.54% to 27,140.92.

South Korea's Kospi meanwhile surged 2.70% to see the day out from 3,549.21.

The Shanghai Stock Exchange's Composite Index remained closed in observance of National Day.

Nonetheless, at least in the case of Chinese and Hong Kong issues, DBS analyst Samuel Tse saw other factors at play.

In a research note sent to clients, Tse cited foreign investor interest, monetary easing, and a rotation from bonds into stocks as some of the other drivers behind recent gains in those stock markets.

"As trade tensions and global fiscal concerns persist, investors are seeking alternatives to the USD and traditional developed market assets," he added.

In terms of economic data, Japanese unemployment was reported at up by two tenths of a percentage point to 2.6%.