The sails of the Opera House are illuminated with projections on the opening night of Vivid Sydney 2023 in Sydney, Australia, on Friday, May 26, 2023.
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Asia-Pacific markets were mixed Friday as mainland Chinese markets hit their lowest since 2019 and Australian markets neared an all-time high.
In Asia, investors will react to August inflation figures out from India late Thursday, which showed that the consumer price index rose 3.65% year on year, rising from a five-year low. This was above July’s revised figure of 3.6% and also beat expectations of 3.5% from economists polled by Reuters.
Mainland China’s CSI 300 slipped 0.42% to 3,172.47, its lowest level since January 2019.
In contrast, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.3% and closed at 8,099.9. During the session, the index crossed its all-time closing high of 8,114.7 briefly, before giving up its gains.
South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.13%, ending at 2,575.41 while the small-cap Kosdaq finished 0.3% higher at 733.2. Shares of chip heavyweight Samsung Electronics slipped almost 3% as workers in its India plant reportedly went on strike for a fifth consecutive day.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.68% to 36,581.76, while the broad-based Topix dropped 0.86% and closed at 2,571.14.
The yen strengthened 0.53% against the U.S. dollar to 141.05 on Friday. The currency briefly touched 140.62, its strongest intraday level since Dec. 28, 2023.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index had gained 0.81% as of its final hour of trade.
Overnight in the U.S., the S&P 500 gained 0.75%, marking a four-day winning streak. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.58%, while the Nasdaq Composite saw the largest gain, rising 1%.
Thursday saw the last major data point for the U.S. economy before the Federal Reserve meeting next week, as the country’s producer price index rose 0.2% month on month, in line with expectations from Dow Jones. On a year-on-year basis, headline PPI rose 1.7%.
—CNBC’s Pia Singh, Jeff Cox and Sarah Min contributed to this report.