Asian Stocks Track Wall Street’s Overnight Rally

Stock markets in Asia rallied on Friday, powered by the strong rally in Wall Street on Thursday as the West imposed retaliatory sanctions on Russia.

China’s Shanghai Composite Index gained 21 points or 0.63 percent to finish at 3,451.41. Meanwhile, The People’s Bank of China injected 300-billion-yuan worth of liquidity into the banking system on Friday, far higher than the 10 billion yuan of expiring loans.

The Japanese benchmark Nikkei 225 added more than 500 points or 1.95 percent to end Friday’s trading at 26,476.50, tracking in a big way the gains at Wall Street.

Advantest Corp and Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha surged more than 7 percent. Dainippon Screen Manufacturing Co added 6.01 percent. Tokyo Electron and Softbank Group gained more than 5 percent.
Fukuoka Financial Group and Inpex Corp declined more than 6 percent. Concordia Financial Group lost 5.44 percent. Sompo Holdings Inc and Chiba Bank declined more than 4 percent.
The Hang Seng Index of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange lost 112 points or 0.49 percent from previous close to finish trading at 22,789.73. The day’s high was at 23,046.86 and low at 22,718.15.

Korean Stock Exchange’s Kospi Index gained 28 points or 1.06 percent to close at 2676.76. The day’s trading range was between 2665.96 and 2694.81.
Australia’s S&P/ASX200 closed trading at 6,997.80 after gaining 7.20 points or 0.10 percent. Technology shares led the gains.
Software business Life360 Inc was the top gainer with a 22-percent rally after posting upbeat financial results. Paladin Energy Ltd gained 12 percent, also on the strength of its results and strong cash position. Tyro Payments as well as Lion Town Resources rallied more than 10 percent. Appen Ltd gained 8.637 percent.
Household and personal products business Blackmores shed 10.54 percent. Magellan financial Group too lost more than 10 percent. St Barbara lost 8.87 percent.
The NZX50 of the New Zealand Stock Exchange added 189.62 points or 1.62 percent to close at 11,923.38.
Vista, Ryman Healthcare, EROAD, Precinct Properties and Skellerup are the major gainers.
Fonterra Shareholders, Vital Healthcare, Air New Zealand and ANZ Banking Group have all declined more than 1 percent.
The Wall Street had rallied on Thursday as the West imposed several retaliatory sanctions on Russia. The Nasdaq-100 had gained 3.44 percent to close at 13974.67 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average had moved up 0.28 percent to end at 33,223.83.