The sails of the Opera House are illuminated with projections on the opening night of Vivid Sydney 2023 in Sydney, Australia, on Friday, May 26, 2023.
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Asia-Pacific markets were mixed Friday, as mainland Chinese markets rebounded from a six year low and Australian markets near an all time high.
In Asia, investors will react to August inflation figures out from India late Thursday, which showed that the consumer price index rose 3.65% year on year, rising from a five-year low. This was above July’s revised figure of 3.6% and also beat expectations of 3.5% from economists polled by Reuters.
Mainland China’s CSI 300 was marginally up, rebounding from a near six-year low. The index closed at 3,127.47 on Thursday, the lowest point since January 2019.
In contrast, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.27%, nearing its all-time high of 8,148.7.
South Korea’s Kospi was 0.15% down, while the small-cap Kosdaq was 0.23% lower. Shares of chip heavyweight Samsung Electronics slipped almost 3% as workers in its India plant reportedly went on strike for a fifth consecutive day.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.74%, while the broad-based Topix dropped 0.86%.
The yen strengthened 0.49% against the U.S. dollar to 141.1 on Friday. The currency briefly touched 140.62, its strongest intra-day level since Dec. 28, 2023.
Hong Kong Hang Seng index gained 0.97%.
Overnight in the U.S., the S&P 500 gained 0.75%, marking a four-day winning streak. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.58%, while the Nasdaq Composite saw the largest gain, rising 1%.
Thursday saw the last major data point for the U.S. economy before the Federal Reserve meeting next week, as the country’s producer price index rose 0.2% month on month, in line with expectations from Dow Jones. On a year-on-year basis, headline PPI rose 1.7%.
—CNBC’s Pia Singh, Jeff Cox and Sarah Min contributed to this report.