Asia report: Most markets higher, Chinese tech shares retreat

Most stock markets closed mostly higher in Asia on Friday, although Chinese technology plays were in focus again, finishing on the back foot in Hong Kong.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 was up 0.36% at 26,985.80, as the yen weakened 0.1% against the dollar to last trade at JPY 124.08.

Fashion firm Fast Retailing was down 0.02%, while among the benchmark’s other major components, automation specialist Fanuc was up 0.26% and technology conglomerate SoftBank Group was ahead 0.51%.

The broader Topix index managed gains of 0.21% by the end of trading, settling at 1,896.79.

On the mainland, the Shanghai Composite added 0.47% to 3,251.85, and the smaller, technology-heavy Shenzhen Composite lost 0.32% to 2,080.77.

The latest wave of Covid-19 was at the top of the agenda in China, with its economic centre of Shanghai recording more than 21,000 new cases on Thursday - 824 symptomatic, and 20,398 without symptoms.

Shanghai was placed under a new strict lockdown last month as authorities grappled with the worst outbreak since the initial outbreaks of the coronavirus in early 2020.

South Korea’s Kospi was 0.17% firmer at 2,700.39, while the Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong was 0.29% firmer t 21,872.01.

Technology shares finished weaker in the special administrative region, with the Hang Seng Technology Index ending the day down 1.15%.

Alibaba Group was down 1.33%, Baidu lost 1.6%, JD.com slid 2.11%, Meituan was 1.76% weaker, NetEase slipped 0.81%, and Tencent Holdings was 1.28% lower.

The blue-chip technology stocks were on the back foot in Seoul as well, with Samsung Electronics down 0.29% and SK Hynix off 1.32%.

Oil prices were in the green as the region entered the weekend, with Brent crude futures last up 0.63% on ICE at $101.21 per barrel, and the West Texas Intermediate quote rising 0.86% on NYMEX to $96.86.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 was 0.47% higher at 7,478.00, while across the Tasman Sea, New Zealand’s S&P/NZX 50 slipped 0.08% to 12,066.27.

The down under dollars were both weaker against the greenback, with the Aussie last off 0.26% at AUD 1.3406, and the Kiwi retreating 0.5% to NZD 1.4586.