Asian Markets Mixed as Investors await U.S. Jobs Report

Shares in Asia-Pacific were mixed on Friday as investors awaited the release of a closely watched U.S. jobs report.

Shares of South Korea’s Kakao Bank surged in their Friday debut, rising nearly 80% from the issue price. South Korea’s broader Kospi slipped 0.18% to close at 3,270.36.

Mainland Chinese stocks fell on the day, with the Shanghai Composite down 0.24% to 3,458.23 while the Shenzhen component dipped 0.301% to 14,827.41. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was around 0.1% higher, as of its final hour of trading.

The S&P/ASX 200 in Australia closed 0.36% higher at 7,538.40.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 gained 0.33% to close at 27,820.04 while the Topix index ended the trading day little changed at 1,929.34.

Elsewhere in Southeast Asia, shares of Indonesian e-commerce firm Bukalapak made their trading debut Friday, jumping 25% from an initial public offering price of 850 rupiah ($0.06) to 1,060 rupiah. The price move triggered the stock exchange’s auto rejection mechanism and the price stayed at 1,060 rupiah as of 2:04 p.m. local time.

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Those gains outpaced the wider Jakarta Composite in Indonesia, which slipped 0.12%.

The Reserve Bank of India’s monetary policy committee on Friday kept interest rates unchanged, a decision that was largely in line with expectations of economists in a Reuters poll. The repo rate, the key lending rate at which the RBI lends to commercial banks, was left unchanged at 4%.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slipped 0.15%.

Investors looked ahead to the closely watched July U.S. jobs report set to be released Friday morning stateside, with a wide range of estimates from economists about what the report will show.

Asian Markets Currencies & Oil

The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 92.307 — still above levels below 92 seen earlier in the week.

The Japanese yen traded at 109.74 per dollar, weaker than levels below 109.2 seen against the greenback earlier this week. The Australian dollar was at $0.7391, against an earlier high of $0.7407.

Oil prices were higher in the afternoon of Asia trading hours, with international benchmark Brent crude futures up 0.59% to $71.71 per barrel. U.S. crude futures rose 0.59% to $69.50 per barrel.