Hong Kong stocks opened flat on Friday as nervous investors took to the sidelines ahead of steep US tariffs on Chinese goods due to take effect in the middle of the Asian trading day.
The Hang Seng Index edged up 0.18 percent, or 49.58 points, to 28,231.67.
The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index edged down 0.09 percent, or 2.53 points, to 2,731.35 while the Shenzhen Composite Index, which tracks stocks on China’s second exchange, added 0.07 percent, or 1.14 points, to 1,529.81.
Tokyo stocks opened higher Friday tracking gains on Wall Street led by optimism on trade talks between the US and the European Union.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index advanced 0.89 percent or 190.70 points to 21,737.69 in early trade while the broader Topix was up 0.89 percent or 15.00 points at 1,691.20.
“The Tokyo market took the positive lead from New York,” said Hikaru Sato, senior technical analyst at Daiwa Securities.
“A possible compromise between the US and EU is good news for Japan as well,” Sato told AFP.
The US ambassador in Berlin, Richard Grenell, told bosses of Germany’s biggest car firms that Washington was calling on the EU to bring tariffs to zero on car imports — in exchange for equal treatment by the US. The US is studying the possibility of imposing tariffs on autos on national security grounds.
“The market has already factored in the impact of the present stage of the US-China, but the issue can affect the market positively or negatively any time in the future,” Sato said.
The dollar fetched 110.71 yen in early Asian trade, compared with 110.64 yen in New York.
Automakers were higher as Toyota jumped 1.77 percent to 7,212 yen and Honda surged 2.01 percent to 3,248 yen. — AFP

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