Stocks in Asia-Pacific were higher on Wednesday following an overnight bounce on Wall Street as optimism grew over the prospect of more stimulus.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 recovered 69.56 points, or 0.3%, to 26,757.40.
Japan’s exports declined 4.2% in November as compared with a year ago, according to Ministry of Finance data released Wednesday. That was far off the 0.5% rise expected by economists.
In Japan, Alps Alpine surged 7.14% while Sharp gained 3%.
The Japanese yen traded at 103.40 per U.S. dollar, having seen levels around 104.1 against the greenback yesterday
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index regained 253 points, or 1%, to 26,460.29.
Hong Kong-listed shares of AAC Technologies soared 3%. Hong Kong-listed shares of China’s largest chipmaker SMIC plunged 4.94% on Wednesday. The company’s Shanghai-listed shares fell about 5.5%.
Elsewhere, shares of Apple suppliers in Asia-Pacific were higher, following a Nikkei report that the Cupertino-based tech giant will increase iPhone production by about 30% in the first half of 2021.
Over in Taiwan, shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company gained 1.6% and Largan Precision jumped 3.1%.
Index provider MSCI earlier announced that SMIC’s Hong Kong-listed stock was among a list of securities set to be deleted from its global investable market indexes.
SMIC also said Wednesday that its board was aware that co-CEO Mong-song Liang intends to resign, according to a filing to the Shanghai stock exchange.
The Australian dollar was at $0.7565 after trading at levels around $0.751 yesterday.
CHINA
In Shanghai, the CSI 300 gained 8.77 points, or 0.2%, to 4,953.87.
In mainland China, Luxshare saw its stock rise about 4%.
In other markets
In Korea, the Kospi index regained 14.97 points, or 0.5%, to 2,771.79
In Taiwan, the Taiex Index dumped 235.94 points, or 1.7%, to 14,304.46.
In Singapore, the Straits Times Index gathered 16.08 points, or 0.6%, to 2,872.80.
In New Zealand, the NZX 50 advanced 61.82 points, or 0.5%, to 12,828.99.
In Australia, the ASX 200 picked up 48.12 points, or 0.7%, to 6,657.92.
