Asia-Pacific stock markets gained after a choppy start Wednesday, following the first down day on Wall Street in seven sessions.
Taiwan’s benchmark Y9999, +2.81% jumped 2.5% following after being closed for the Lunar New Year break. Tech stocks led gains; lens maker Largan Precision 3008, +7.34% rose 8%.
Markets in Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea also gained.
Korea’s Kospi SEU, +0.60% was recently up 0.3% after falling as much as 0.5% earlier. Samsung Electronics 005930, -0.25% was recently up 0.1%.
The Hang Seng Index HSI, +1.81% rose 0.8% Wednesday morning and a gauge of Chinese companies with listings in the city advanced 1.3%. Mainland Chinese markets resume trading on Thursday.
“For the rest of the year, there are reasons to be more optimistic about China than many other developed markets like the U.S., both because valuations are reasonable and haven’t gone up as much for quality stocks, and the macroeconomic picture,” said Andy Rothman, investment strategist at Matthews Asia.
He noted 2017 was a “fantastic year” for earnings growth in China, though gains would be slower this year, but more profit increases are looming.
Stocks in the MSCI China Index recorded about twice the gains in January than the S&P 500 and are down by less year-to-date than the U.S. benchmark.
Meanwhile, Japanese stocks strengthened by midday. The Nikkei NIK, +0.21% ended the morning up 0.6% as the yen continued to pull back. The U.S. dollar JPYUSD, -0.072620% was recently trading at ¥107.80, its highest level in a week, versus ¥106.75 at the end of Tokyo stock trading Tuesday.
A preliminary Japanese purchasing managers index reading eased to 54 in February from 54.8. A reading above 50 indicates economic expansion and the figure “is still close to a four-year high,” said Marcel Thieliant, senior Japan economist at Capital Economics.
The figure “suggests that export volumes will continue to expand at a solid pace,” he said, and signals that price pressures aren’t strengthening more.
New Zealand’s NZX 50 NZ50GR, +1.26% was up 1.5% late in the afternoon, driven by a 25% surge in a2 Milk ATM, +26.48% following strong fiscal first-half results and a partnership-and-supply deal with Fonterra Co-Operative Group FCG, +0.67% , the world’s largest dairy exporter.
Oil futures were down more than 0.5% and bitcoin prices BTCUSD, -6.37% continued to hovered around $11,000 after bouncing about 86% from this month’s lows, according to data from CoinDesk.