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Asia-Pacific markets mostly rose on Friday despite a plunge in all three benchmarks in the U.S. over the previous session amid concern about President Donald Trump’s tariff plans.
Mainland China’s CSI 300 reversed its losses on Thursday to trade 2.4% higher at 11:47 a.m. Singapore time, leading gains in Asia. The increase was led by stocks in the healthcare, consumer cyclicals and non-cyclicals sectors.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index also saw substantial gains, rising 2.22%.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.39%, also reversing course from losses in the previous session.
In Japan, the benchmark Nikkei 225 rose 0.35% while the broader Topix index gained 0.40%.
South Korea’s Kospi index traded flat while the small-cap Kosdaq advanced 1.82%.
It comes after another escalation in the developing trade war, with Trump threatening to enact 200% tariffs on all alcoholic products coming from the European Union in retaliation for the bloc’s 50% tariff on whiskey. Trump on Thursday said, “I’m not going to bend at all” regarding tariffs.
Michael Strobaek, global chief investment officer at private bank Lombard Odier, noted that uncertainties around Trump’s policies “means market risk.”
“There will be so much for markets to digest, and navigate so many ‘unknown unknowns’,” he wrote in a Friday note.
He suggested that investors play the market by “filtering out the noise.” “The macroeconomic and market fundamentals remain solid, but there will be a lot of uncertainty ahead. In the face of volatility, a high degree of diversification is the prudent portfolio response,” Strobaek added.
— CNBC’s Lisa Kailai Han and Pia Singh contributed to this report.
