<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Asian equities advanced on Thursday, with technology shares leading gains<\/strong> as investor enthusiasm for artificial intelligence continued to drive momentum in chipmaking and software sectors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The upbeat tone followed record closes on Wall Street<\/strong>, where the S&P 500<\/strong> and NASDAQ Composite<\/strong> surged on renewed optimism around AI demand and expectations of further U.S. rate cuts<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n China\u2019s Shanghai Composite<\/strong> and CSI 300<\/strong> indices gained 1.3%<\/strong> and 1.6%<\/strong>, respectively, as investors returned from the Golden Week holiday<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n State media reported robust travel and spending trends<\/strong> during the break, with passenger travel up 6.2% year-on-year<\/strong> and retail sales rising 3.3%<\/strong> in the first four days. These signs of solid consumer activity helped fuel optimism about a recovery in domestic demand<\/strong> despite lingering deflationary pressures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tech and industrial shares led the rally, with Chinese chipmakers catching up to global peers that rallied last week amid AI-driven optimism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Japan\u2019s Nikkei 225<\/strong> jumped 1.5%<\/strong>, while the TOPIX<\/strong> added 0.4%<\/strong>, positioning both benchmarks near all-time highs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n SoftBank Group Corp.<\/strong> soared over 11%<\/strong> after announcing plans to acquire ABB\u2019s robotics division<\/strong> for $5.4 billion<\/strong>, reinforcing its aggressive bet on AI and automation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Industrial stocks such as Yaskawa Electric<\/strong>, Ebara<\/strong>, and Fuji Electric<\/strong> also advanced sharply, buoyed by expectations of increased government spending<\/strong> under incoming Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi<\/strong>, a known fiscal dove.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Market sentiment was further boosted by speculation that the Bank of Japan<\/strong> will delay any further rate hikes, supporting liquidity condition<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Hang Seng Index<\/strong> recovered from early losses to trade 0.3% higher<\/strong>, but gains were capped by steep declines in health technology<\/strong> names.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Alibaba Health<\/strong> and JD Health<\/strong> fell 3.6%<\/strong> and 4.7%<\/strong>, respectively, following a report that Microsoft<\/strong> plans to expand into AI-powered healthcare<\/strong>, raising competitive concerns. Sino Biopharmaceutical<\/strong> and Hansoh Pharmaceutical<\/strong> slumped 8.1%<\/strong> and 6.8%<\/strong>, respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, HSBC<\/strong> shares slid 6%<\/strong> after it proposed a HK$106 billion ($13.6 billion)<\/strong> privatization of Hang Seng Bank<\/strong>, which itself soared 40%<\/strong> to become the session\u2019s top performer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Elsewhere in Asia, sentiment was broadly positive but uneven across sectors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Investor optimism was reinforced by dovish Federal Reserve minutes<\/strong> from September, which boosted expectations of additional rate cuts<\/strong> this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Attention now turns to Fed Chair Jerome Powell\u2019s speech later today<\/strong>, where markets will look for confirmation of the central bank\u2019s easing trajectory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Hamas and Israel<\/strong> also supported broader risk appetite<\/strong>, helping temper geopolitical risk premiums and improving global equity sentiment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Asian equities advanced on Thursday, with technology shares leading gains as investor enthusiasm for artificial intelligence continued to drive momentum in chipmaking and software sectors. The upbeat tone followed record closes on Wall Street, where the S&P 500 and NASDAQ Composite surged on renewed optimism around AI demand and expectations of further U.S. rate cuts. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":31994,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6827,49,39,36],"tags":[6849,6851],"class_list":["post-119737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-daily-economic-reports","category-economic-reports","category-global-stock-markets","category-market-updates","tag-asia","tag-stocks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119737"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119737\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":119740,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119737\/revisions\/119740"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Mainland China Rebounds Strongly After Holiday<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Japan Near Record Highs on Tech and Policy Support<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Hong Kong Lags as Healthcare Stocks Drop<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Broader Asia: Tech Strength Offsets Mixed Regional Moves<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n
Outlook: AI Momentum and Fed Support in Focus<\/h3>\n\n\n\n