Asia-Pacific stocks rise following overnight Wall Street surge

SINGAPORE — Shares in Asia-Pacific largely climbed in Friday morning trade following big gains overnight on Wall Street as the Nasdaq Composite surged 3%.

Mainland Chinese stocks were higher in morning trade, with the Shanghai Composite up 0.29% while the Shenzhen Component gained 0.54%.

South Korea’s Kospi gained 0.9% while the S&P/ASX 200 in Australia advanced 0.81%.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index lagged the broader region as it slipped fractionally, with shares of HSBC falling more than 1%.

Markets in Japan are closed on Friday for a holiday. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan traded 0.7% higher.

Investors watched moves in Asia-Pacific technology stocks after their counterparts on Wall Street rallied overnight. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite jumped 3.06% to 12,871.53.

In Friday morning trade, shares of South Korean industry heavyweight Samsung Electronics gained 3.4% while chipmaker SK Hynix climbed nearly 2%. Krafton jumped 3.53%.

Chinese technology stocks were mixed In Hong Kong, with Tencent slipping 0.24% while Alibaba climbed 0.17%. The Hang Seng Tech index traded 0.27% higher.

The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 103.388 — largely holding on to gains after crossing the 102 level earlier in the week.

The Japanese yen traded at 130.49 per dollar, continuing to remain weak after crossing the 130 level against the greenback yesterday. The Australian dollar was at $0.7132, still off levels above $0.72 seen earlier this week.