Hong Kong Hang Seng Rises, Chinese Gaming Stocks Rise

SINGAPORE – Stocks in Asia-Pacific rose on Friday as investors watched stocks of Hong Kong-listed companies in regulatory-hit sectors such as video games.

On Friday afternoon in Hong Kong, shares of Tencent in the city jumped 1.67% while Netease gained 2.32% – a partial recovery from the heavy losses seen on Thursday.

Games shares fell on Thursday as the South China Morning Post reported that the Chinese government would suspend approvals of new online games in the country. After the market closed, however, the outlet corrected the report to say instead that regulators would slow down the approval process.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong-listed shares of struggling Chinese real estate developer China Evergrande Group slipped 0.85% as concerns remain over the company’s debt situation.

The larger Hang Seng index in Hong Kong jumped 1.65%, after falling more than 2% on Thursday. Mainland China stocks edged up, with the Shanghai composite advancing 0.43% while the Shenzhen component gained 0.595%.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 rose 1.1% while the Topix index rose 1.01%. South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.39%.

The S & P / ASX 200 in Australia gained 0.39%.

The MSCI’s largest Asia-Pacific stock index outside of Japan traded up 0.42%.

At the same time, the European Central Bank on Thursday announced a slowdown in the pace of net asset purchases as part of its emergency pandemic purchasing program.

Overnight on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 151.69 points to 34,879.38 while the S&P 500 lost 0.46% to 4,493.28. The Nasdaq Composite dipped 0.25% to 15,248.25.

The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 92.485 after falling earlier in the week above 92.7.

The Japanese yen was trading at 109.87 per dollar, stronger than the levels around 110.4 seen against the greenback earlier this week. The Australian dollar changed hands at $ 0.738 after falling from above the $ 0.744 seen earlier in the trading week.

Oil prices were higher in the afternoon of trading hours in Asia, with international benchmark Brent crude futures slipping 0.56% to $ 71.85 a barrel. US crude futures gained 0.47% to $ 68.46 a barrel.