Global stocks continued to rebound Friday, with Asian equities recovering from midweek losses to extend gains into a second straight week.
The rebound has reversed much of the declines seen during a wrenching selloff early this month, which were stoked by interest-rate worries. All major benchmarks in Asia remain lower for February, though indexes in Singapore and Australia are closest to break-even.
Singapore’s Straits Times Index STI, +1.28% was recently up 1.25%, which is where Taiwan’s Taiex finished Y9999, +1.24% , and Korea’s Kospi SEU, +1.54% closed up 1.5%, the best day since Oct. 10. The Taiex jumped 3.6% this week, the most since September 2016.
“Asia is in a good position to ride out interest-rates hikes from the Federal Reserve given the prospects of a weaker dollar and a solid outlook for Asian exports,” said Christy Tan, head of markets strategy/research for Asia at National Australia Bank .
The inflation picture remains benign. January readings for Singapore and Japan out Friday were both weaker than expected.
Solid stock gains were seen in many parts of Asia-Pacific. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index HSI, +0.97% was recently up 1%, a gauge of Chinese companies with listings in the city climbed 2% and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 XJO, +0.82% closed 0.8% higher to cap its best week since October.
S&P 500 futures ESH8, +0.17% were recently up 0.4%.
The regional underperformer was China. The big-cap CSI 300 advanced 0.2% after the market’s 2% jump Thursday. The startup-heavy ChiNext index in Shenzhen fell 0.6%.
Meanwhile, Chinese authorities took control of Anbang Insurance Group Co., an acquisitive conglomerate.
Oil futures were little changed in afternoon Asian trading after Thursday’s jump to two-week highs.
Bitcoin’s price BTCUSD, +1.66% remains slightly below $10,000 after falling to as low as $9,600—a one-week worst for the cryptocurrency—according to CoinDesk. Ether, a rival token that trades on the Ethereum blockchain, rebounded 3.7% to $844.59 after falling below $800 earlier in the trading day.