By - Furquan Moharkan
Highlights
- APAC markets were on a high on Thursday.
- Hong Kong shares outperform peers in the regional rally.
- China markets remain closed.
The rally in equities of Asia Pacific region on Thursday was led by shares in Hong Kong – a geographical sub-region that has seen its markets get battered this year despite a global rally.
The Hong Kong benchmark, Hang Seng index, was up 2.16% at the time of filing this copy. The rally in the broader market was led by the tech shares, with the Hong Kong Tech Index – representing the 30 largest technology companies listed in the Chinese Autonomous Region – surging by 4.01%. Shares of Chinese tech giants Tencent and Alibaba were up 3.41% and 5.61%, respectively.
But the biggest gainers in the Hong Kong market were shares of Chinese Estates, formerly a major shareholder of embattled developer China Evergrande. Shares of the company surged 31.38% as people started buying more and more shares in the company following its decision to go private.
In mainland China, the markets were closed as the weeklong China National Day holiday ends today.
In Japan, the benchmark Nikkei 225 rose 0.78% while the Topix index was treading near the flatline – up 0.09%. Elsewhere, in South Korea, the KOSPI advanced 1.60% while Taiwan’s Taiex surged 1.96% – the second-best performer in the region.
Down Under, shares in Australia also rose, with the benchmark ASX 200 up 0.70%.
Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley Capital International’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan traded 1.25% lower.
The APAC rally follows the rally in the US markets earlier.
Overnight on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 102.32 points to 34,416.99 while the S&P 500 gained 0.41% to 4,363.55. The Nasdaq Composite edged 0.47% higher to 14,501.91.