The Seoul city skyline early on December 16, 2020. (Photo by Ed JONES / AFP) (Photo by ED JONES/AFP via Getty Images)
Ed Jones | Afp | Getty Images
South Korea’s Kospi touched a record high for the second straight day on Friday, powered by a rally among insurance stocks and defense players.
Samsung Life Insurance gained over 3.59%, while Mirae Asset Securities was up 3.69%. Defense heavyweight Hanwha Aerospace jumped 6.35%, while counterpart Firstec was up a whopping 16.7%.
Index heavyweight SK Hynix rose 3.36%.
However, other Asia-Pacific markets were mostly lower on Friday, after all three major Wall Street indexes declined overnight pressured by a drop in private credit stocks and Iran-U.S. tensions.
Prospects of a strike on Iran have risen with U.S. President Donald Trump saying that he would take a call to decide on military action against Tehran in the next 10 days.
Oil prices extended gains in reaction to that news, with U.S. crude rising 0.53%, to trade at $66.78 per barrel on Friday. Global benchmark Brent gained 0.18%, to settle at $71.79.
Over in Asia, traders are assessing Japan’s inflation data, with headline inflation for January dipping below the Bank of Japan’s 2% target for the first time in 45 months.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 was down 1.29%, dragged by utilities stocks, while the Topix was 1.3% lower.
Shares of Sumitomo Pharma, one of the country’s largest pharmaceutical companies, were volatile in early trade, climbing as much as 6.81% before plunging over 11%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was down 0.5%, dragged by tech stocks. Mainland China’s markets are still closed for the Lunar New Year holiday.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 slipped to hover just below the flatline.
Overnight in the U.S., private credit and software stocks were also under pressure, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average shedding 0.54%, and the broad-based S&P 500 slipped 0.28%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite lost 0.31%.
—CNBC’s Sean Conlon and Pia Singh contributed to this report.
Correction: This article has been updated to reflect that Hong Kong markets are open today.