Asian stocks rose in the last trading day, tracking the positivity on Wall Street overnight as investors were optimistic about US corporate earnings and better-than-expected employment data.
The Nikkei index achieved its first weekly gain in four weeks after jumping at the close of today’s session.
The Nikkei index rose 1.81% to close at 29068.62 points, its highest level in more than two weeks, while the broader Topix index rose 1.86% to 2023.93 points. This week, the Nikkei index rose by 3.64%, while the Topix index rose 3.16% after losing three weeks.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.6%. The ASX 200 trades higher 0.7%, led by miners amid rising energy and metal prices. Hang Seng rose 1.21%, whereas South Korea’s Kospi gained 0.94%.
According to the Comex rating of the New York Mercantile Exchange, gold futures contracts in December were trading at $1793.45 an ounce, down 0.25%.
The session has already traded down $1793.05 per ounce. Gold may find points of support at $1749.90 and resistance at $1801.90.
The dollar index, which measures the performance of the US currency against a basket of six other major currencies, fell 0.01% to trade at $93.950.
On Friday morning, the People’s Bank of China set the yuan’s exchange rate against the US dollar at 6.4386 yuan per dollar, while expectations were for stability at 6.4402 yuan per dollar. Also, the Bank of China injected about 10 billion yuan into the 7-day repurchase market.
Gold retreats from one-month highs and trades near $1,793, with 0.26% losses.
Japan’s economic recovery trend to become clearer as pandemic impact subsides.
Consumption continues to stagnate.
Exports, output being affected somewhat by supply constraints but continue to increase.
The Bank of Japan (BOJ) Deputy Governor Masayoshi Amamiya said on Friday