Asian stocks were mainly in the green on Friday as tech-heavy shares in the region firmed after the sharp losses in the past few days, but regional indices remained on track for steep drops this week.
Heavyweight tech indices, including South Korea’s KOSPI, gained 0.87% on Friday, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.19%, and Japan’s Nikkei 225 index climbed 0.23% but later eased 0.22%.
The three have fallen 1.80% to 5.20% for the week, with the Nikkei logging the biggest slump.
Tech stocks stabilized as valuations stumbled the week earlier due to prolonged profit-taking in the markets and investors turning to more economically sensitive sectors.
Earnings miss and the prospect of increased artificial intelligence (AI) spending from Tesla Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google LLC, respectively, also added to the declines.
Shares in Taiwanese chip giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) Ltd. moved contrary to the broader tech stock market, sliding 5.62% in Taipei after Taiwan’s $2.5 trillion market was closed for two days due to Typhoon Gaemi.
Regional Indices Set for Sharp Weekly Losses
Regional indices had an average performance as Wall Street’s tech sector remained in the red after several lackluster earnings, although the loss momentum seemed to have slowed, with US stock futures surging.
Investors observed some optimism in the markets following a preliminary reading of US gross domestic product (GDP) showing that the world’s largest economy grew to 2.8% in the second quarter, above expectations of 2.0% and the first quarter’s 1.4% growth.
Markets are awaiting more interest rate cut cues from the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge, the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index, due later in the day.
Japanese stock markets logged the weakest performance in Asia this week, with selling prospects increasing on ongoing uncertainty ahead of the Bank of Japan’s (BOJ) policy meeting on July 31.
For this week, the Nikkei 225 and TOPIX index both declined more than 5%. Markets are of two minds about seeing a 10-basis point (bp) hike from the BOJ next week.
Chinese stocks also continued to weigh on their peers. The Shanghai Composite index slipped 0.18% on Friday, while the blue-chip CSI 300 index was down 0.09%. The two indices stayed at their lowest levels in five months.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 and India’s Nifty 50 presented the best performance among Asian stock indexes this week, losing only 0.50% on investors’ shift to more economically sensitive sectors in hopes of an interest rate cut this year.
