Asian stocks rise after big gains on Wall Street

AFP :
Asian stocks were up on Friday, tracking big gains on Wall Street fuelled by strong tech earnings and mixed, but manageable, macroeconomic data.
Fears of further turmoil in the banking sector, which had acted as a drag on global markets, also appeared to be dissipating as shares in troubled US lender First National Bank rose after two battering sessions.
Hong Kong was up nearly one percent in early trade Friday on the back of solid gains by Chinese tech giant Tencent and strong performances by commerce and industry stocks.
Tokyo also posted solid gains as investors kept their eyes on the Bank of Japan (BoJ), which will conclude its first meeting under new governor Kazuo Ueda during Tokyo trading hours.
“The BoJ is widely expected to hold firm,” given that Ueda “defended the Bank’s current ultra-easy policy stance in front of Parliament earlier this week,” National Australia Bank senior analyst Taylor Nugent said in a note.
Traders will be also watching the BoJ’s inflation forecasts, which will be released at the same time, he added.
Shanghai, Seoul, Sydney, Taipei, Wellington, Manila and Kuala Lumpur were all up, with Jakarta the sole loser. Singapore was more or less flat.
Back on Wall Street, a 14 percent surge in Meta shares — along with strong performances by fellow tech titans Microsoft and Alphabet earlier in the week — “helped foster a sense of relief that the mega-cap leaders are still performing relatively well from an operational standpoint”, said Briefing.com.