Major stock exchanges in the Asia-Pacific region rose further during the afternoon trading hours on Thursday, with Chinese stocks leading the gains. The upbeat sentiment seemingly followed the optimism seen on Wall Street as investors appeared to be more confident as 2023 slowly neared its end.
Market participants also dissected the latest influx of data, which saw an update on retail sales and industrial production in Japan. Semiconductor production boosted South Korea's industrial output in November by recording a modest 0.5% increase in the reported period.
At 7:08 am CET, Hong Kong's Hang Seng surged 2.70%. The Shanghai Composite jumped 1.50% and the Shenzhen Composite Index soared 2.47%, while South Korea's Kospi advanced by 1.34%. Japan's Nikkei 225 traded 0.42% lower and Australian S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.70% at the closing bell.
The dollar lost 0.50% against the Japanese yen, selling at 141.10350 a minute later.
