SINGAPORE — Shares in Asia-Pacific were mostly higher in Thursday trade after gains overnight on Wall Street led to a record close for both the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index advanced 0.48%.
Shares of Chinese artificial intelligence firm SenseTime Group rose more than 4% from their issue price in early trading following their Thursday debut in Hong Kong. The stock later extended those gains and was last trading more than 16% higher than the issue price.
SenseTime has been caught in the crossfire of tensions between Beijing and Washington, with the firm earlier this month pushing its Hong Kong IPO back after being placed on a U.S. investment blacklist.
Mainland Chinese stocks were also higher, with the Shanghai composite up about 0.5% and the Shenzhen component gaining 0.852%.
The Nikkei 225 in Japan fell 0.12% while the Topix index hovered above the flatline. South Korea’s Kospi climbed 0.06%.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.13%.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan traded 0.28% higher.
Wall Street record close
Overnight stateside, the S&P 500 gained 0.14% to 4,793.06 — its 70th record close of 2021. The Dow Jones Industrial Average also closed at a record, rising 90.42 points to 36,488.63. The Nasdaq Composite lagged, slipping 0.1% to about 15,766.22.
Those moves came as investors continued to assess the economic risks from the omicron Covid variant that has contributed to a surge in infections in places such as the U.S. and U.K.
The World Health Organization also warned Wednesday that new Covid variants could emerge during the pandemic that are “fully resistant to current vaccines or past infection.”
Currencies and oil
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 95.888 following a recent drop from above 96.3.
The Japanese yen traded at 115.03 per dollar, still weaker than levels below 114.8 seen against the greenback earlier in the week, The Australian dollar was at $0.7265 after a recent rise from below $0.724.
Oil prices were higher in the morning of Asia trading hours, with international benchmark Brent crude futures rising 0.33% to $79.49 per barrel. U.S. crude futures gained 0.33% to $76.81 per barrel.
