Asia close: Shanghai stocks lead gains amid yuan strength

Shares in the Asia Pacific region finished the week on a mixed note as falling equity futures on Wall Street sapped the buying impetus.

Asian currencies on the other hand recorded large gains versus the Greenback.

The Nikkei-225 ended the day just about flat at 26,094.50 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng inched up 0.20% to 19,781.41, while the Shanghai Stock Exchange's composite index added 0.51% to 3,089.26.

Citing mobility data, Bloomberg reported that subway passenger numbers in Beijing, Chongqing, Chengdu and Wuhan had rebounded by 40-100% over the week ending on 28 December, with surges in Covid-19 infections having likely peaked.

That appeared to validate comments made by government officials the day before.

Nonetheless, those same officials had described the situation in Shanghai, Chongqing, Anhui, Hubei and Hunan as still serious.

South Korea's Kospi on the other hand gave back 1.93% to end the session at 2,236.40.

In parallel however the US dollar slumped by 0.98% against China's onshore yuan to 6.8962 and by 0.91% versus the Japanese yen to 131.82.

Triggering the move in the former perhaps, the People's Bank of China announced that it would extend trading hours for the onshore yuan as part of moves designed to increase its weight in international finance.