Asia-Pacific stocks mixed; Apple supplier stocks in focus after revenue miss
Shares in Asia-Pacific were mixed on Friday as investors monitored stocks of Apple suppliers after the tech giant’s revenue miss.
Mainland Chinese stocks closed higher as the Shanghai composite advanced 0.82% to 3,547.34 and the Shenzhen component gained 1.45% to 14,451.38.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index shed 0.8%, as of its final hour of trading.
Trading in the Hong Kong-listed shares of Razer was halted on Friday “pending the release of an announcement in relation to inside information of the Company and pursuant to the Hong Kong Code on Takeovers and Mergers,” according to an exchange filing.
The Nikkei 225 in Japan recovered from earlier losses to rise 0.25% on the day to 28,892.69 while the Topix index advanced about 0.1% to close at 2,001.18. South Korea’s Kospi slipped 1.29%, finishing its trading day at 2,970.68.
Australian stocks also fell as the S&P/ASX 200 closed 1.44% lower at 7,323.70. Australia’s retail sales rose 1.3% month-on-month in September on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to data released Friday by the country’s Bureau of Statistics. That was higher than forecasts for a 0.2% gain in retail sales, according to Reuters.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slipped 0.63%.
Currencies and oil
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 93.494 after seeing an earlier low of 93.322.
The Japanese yen traded at 113.58 per dollar, stronger than levels above 114 seen against the greenback earlier this week. The Australian dollar changed hands at $0.7538, largely holding on to gains after climbing from below $0.75 earlier in the week.
Oil prices were higher in the afternoon of Asia trading hours, with international benchmark Brent crude futures up 0.26% to $84.54 per barrel. U.S. crude futures gained 0.14% to $82.93 per barrel.
