Asian stocks rally tracking Wall St strength, easing Fed fears
Investing.com-- Most Asian stocks rose sharply on Friday, encouraged by strength on Wall Street and increased bets that the Federal Reserve was done with its run of interest rate hikes, although focus still remained on key U.S. payrolls data due later in the day.
Technology-heavy indexes were the best performers for the day, tracking consensus-beating results from iPhone maker Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL), while a further decline in Treasury yields also aided the sector.
A drop in Treasury yields also saw Wall Street indexes close higher overnight, which in turn provided a strong lead-in to Asian markets.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was the best performer among its peers, rallying 2% on strength in heavyweight tech stocks.
South Korea’s KOSPI added 1%, while futures for India’s Nifty 50 index pointed to a slightly stronger open on strength in local tech heavyweights.
Among individual stocks, Apple suppliers BYD (HK:1211), AAC Technologies (HK:2018) and Sunny Optical Tech (HK:2382) surged between 2.5% to 7% in Hong Kong trade, after the iPhone maker logged better-than-expected earnings for the September quarter, even as sales in China fell from increased competition. But this increased competition is expected to benefit Chinese suppliers of smartphone components.
South Korea's SK Hynix Inc (KS:000660), which supplies memory chips to Apple, rose 0.8%, while LG Display (KS:034220) and LG Chem Ltd (KS:051915) added 1.3% and 2.9%, respectively.
Tech stocks benefited heavily from a drop in Treasury yields this week, after the Federal Reserve held interest rates as expected, but provided somewhat dovish signals on whether rates will rise further.
This provided much relief to tech stocks, which had otherwise been battered by a
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