Asia-Pacific markets traded higher on Friday, taking their cue from Wall Street after two of three major United States benchmarks notched fresh record highs overnight following the Federal Reserve’s recent rate cut.
China’s top leadership also concluded an annual economic planning meeting on Thursday, signalling broad support measures for the year ahead.
Policymakers reaffirmed their commitment to boosting consumption, stabilising the property sector and accelerating domestic technology capabilities.
By 12:15 pm AEDT (1:15 am GMT), Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was up 1.1% and trading at a four-week high. Japan’s Nikkei 225 gained 1%, while South Korea’s Kospi 200 advanced 0.9%.
In the United States, major benchmarks ended mixed on Thursday, with both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 at record highs.
The Dow rose 1.1%, the S&P 500 added 0.7% and the Nasdaq Composite edged up 0.3%.
Among commodities, Brent crude fell 1.5% to US$61.28 per barrel, touching a seven-week low, while spot gold rose 1.2% to US$4,279.34 per ounce, its highest level since 21 October.
In China, the Shanghai Composite slipped 0.7% to 3,873.3, and the CSI 300 declined 0.9% to 4,552.2.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was little changed at 25,530.5, while India’s BSE Sensex gained 0.5% to 84,818.1.
European markets also advanced on Thursday. The FTSE 100 rose 0.5% to 9,703.2, the DAX climbed 0.7% to 24,294.6 and France’s CAC 40 added 0.8% to 8,085.8.
