Stocks in Asia made mild gains Friday, capping a week where bond volatility from overseas dented markets from Indonesia to Japan and worries about a U.S. rate increase ate into money flows to emerging markets.
Hong Kong and most other markets got a lift from strong U.S. retail-sales data, which boosted optimism about consumer spending and overall health of the world’s largest economy.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 index added 24.11 points, or 0.1%, to 20,407.08,
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index spiked 372.69 points, or 1.4%, to 27,280.54, after Chinese data on industrial production on Thursday largely met expectations. Industrial-production growth rose to 6.1% from 5.9% in April, which analysts took as a sign that growth momentum had stabilized to some extent.
Despite the gains Friday, a selloff in U.S. Treasurys and European bonds, as well as worries about the U.S. Federal Reserve raising interest rates later this year left several markets in Asia with deep losses for the week.
Analysts say emerging-market equity-fund managers are also increasingly feeling the pain of plummeting currencies in the region, which has cut into investors’ returns on stocks and bonds.
Investors pulled out $8.3 billion U.S. from emerging-market stocks and bonds in Asia in the week ending June 10, according to the latest data from ANZ Bank.
CHINA
The Shanghai CSI 300 grew 28.82 points, or 0.5%, to 5,335.64
China has seen particularly large outflows, as foreigners pulled out of an increasingly volatile market and amid the MSCI’s decision to hold off on including the country’s domestic stocks into its widely tracked benchmarks.
Investors pulled out $7.1 billion U.S. from Chinese stock funds in the week ending June 10, compared with inflows of $2 billion U.S. the previous week.
In other markets
In Korea, the Kospi index docked 4.44 points, or 0.2%, to 2,052.17
In Taiwan, the Taiex inched down 0.56 points to 9,301.93
In Singapore, the Straits Times Index gained 6.18 points, or 0.2%, to 3,353.85
The NZX 50 fell 11.44 points, or 0.2%, to 5,846.97
The ASX 200 Index dropped 11.40 points, or 0.2%, to 5,545.25.
