Shares in Asia-Pacific were mostly lower in Friday trade after the S&P 500 on Wall Street cruised to another record closing high overnight.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index dipped 0.72% by the afternoon.
Shares of Tencent-backed financial technology firm Linklogis surged more than 9% from their issue price by the afternoon in its Hong Kong debut on Friday. Shares of Chinese tech juggernaut Tencent were flat.
Mainland Chinese stocks declined as the Shanghai composite shed 0.74% and the Shenzhen component slipped 1.097%.
The moves came as official data released Friday showed Chinese consumer and producer inflation rising in March compared with a year ago.
For March, the consumer price index rose 0.4% from last year, more than expectations for a 0.3% increase in a Reuters poll. For March, the producer price index jumped 4.4% from last year, against expectations in a Reuters poll for a 3.5% rise.
Elsewhere in Japan, stocks bucked the overall downward trend regionally. The Nikkei 225 rose 0.62%, while the Topix index advanced 0.76%. South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.18%.
Stocks in Australia dipped as the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.16%.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan shed 0.38%.
Overnight on Wall Street, the S&P 500 gained 0.42% to 4,097.17 — its second straight record close. The Dow Jones Industrial Average also advanced 57.31 points to end its trading day at 33,503.57, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite jumped 1.03% to close at 13,829.31.
Asian Markets Currencies and oil
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 92.132 after an earlier decline from around 92.4.
The Japanese yen traded at 109.36 per dollar, stronger than levels above 109.5 against the greenback seen yesterday. The Australian dollar changed hands at $0.7631, higher than around $0.76 seen earlier in the week.
Oil prices were lower in the afternoon of Asia trading hours, with international benchmark Brent crude futures below the flatline as they traded at $63.19 per barrel. U.S. crude futures advanced 0.18% to $59.71 per barrel.
