HONG KONG — Asian stocks were mostly up Friday on the back of a near-record rally on U.S. stocks, as investors paid little attention to U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest tariff threats.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index surged 3.69% to 22,620.33, while the Shanghai Composite was up 0.43% to 3,346.72. The Nikkei 225 slid 0.79% to 39,149.43. Meanwhile, the S&P/ASX 200 in Australia was up 0.19% to 8,555.80 and South Korea’s KOSPI was up 0.31% to 2,591.05.
“There are much tailwinds for risk sentiments in the region to tap on, with the positive handover in Wall Street, weaker US dollar and lower Treasury yields,” Yeap Jun Rong, a market strategist at IG, wrote in a note.
“However, Japan’s Nikkei lagged, likely pressured by a stronger yen,” he said.
Chinese technology stocks listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange all gained on Friday, with stocks from video games firm Tencent and smartphone maker Xiaomi surging 7% while e-commerce firm Alibaba and online services firm Meituan gained over 6%.
Chinese technology firms have enjoyed renewed interest since Chinese AI company DeepSeek released an artificial intelligence model that rivals those of OpenAI wh