SINGAPORE: Asian shares rose on Friday after U.S. equities were buoyed by a rebound in technology stocks, while markets in Seoul were underpinned by optimism as leaders of North and South Korea held their first summit in over a decade.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.8 percent, but still looked set to shed 0.9 percent for the week.
European stocks are expected to open higher, according to financial spread betters, with Britain’s FTSE 100 seen opening 5 points up, Germany’s DAX is expected to gain 57 points while France’s CAC is seen rising 13 points.
South Korea’s KOSPI briefly rose more than 1 percent to a one-month high, helped by hopes that the summit could ease tensions over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program and pave the way for the North and South to end their decades-long conflict.
South Korean equities later pared their gains to 0.8 percent, while the South Korean won rose more than 0.5 percent against the dollar in onshore trade.
Japan’s Nikkei share average rose 0.7 percent and touched a two-month peak at one point, getting a boost as chip-related firms rallied after brisk earnings forecasts from Advantest and Kyocera.
The firmer tone of Asian equities came after each of Wall Street’s major indexes rose 1 percent or more on Thursday, boosted by solid earnings results and a rebound in technology stocks.
Amazon.com Inc shares jumped more than 6 percent in after-market trading after the online retailer reported a 43 percent surge in first-quarter revenue.
Facebook surged 9.1 percent on Thursday after posting impressive earnings beat, which appeared to calm worries about the fallout from its use of consumer data.
The U.S. 10-year Treasury yield fell more than 1 basis point in Asia to about 2.975 percent, down from a four-year high of 3.035 percent set earlier in the week.
The U.S. 10-year yield had edged lower on Thursday as buyers emerged in the wake of a sell-off fueled by worries over growing U.S. debt issuance and rising costs.
The euro languished near a 3-1/2-month low, having taken a hit after the European Central Bank on Thursday struck a dovish tone as it kept interest rates unchanged.
ECB chief Mario Draghi acknowledged evidence of a “pull-back” from exceptional growth readings seen around the turn of the year, although the central bank sought to bolster expectations for a gradual withdrawal of its monetary stimulus.
The euro held steady at $1.2107. On Thursday it hit a trough of $1.20965, its lowest level since Jan. 12.
Weaker-than-expected economic data out of the eurozone has cast some doubt as to how quickly the ECB can head toward policy normalization and weighed on the euro recently.
The dollar, which has drawn strength from the recent rise in U.S. bond yields, held steady against a basket of six major currencies at 91.555. The dollar index had set a 3-1/2-month high of around 91.637 on Thursday.
The yen showed little reaction after the Bank of Japan kept its monetary policy steady as widely expected.
Against the yen, the dollar held steady at 109.28 yen, having backed off slightly from a 2-1/2-month peak of 109.49 yen struck on Thursday.
