Asian stocks declined, trimming a first-half rally in global equities. Treasury yields steadied following a surge on Thursday on bets for further rate hikes, which cast a shadow over markets. Benchmark indexes declined in Japan, Hong Kong, and Australia, while South Korea’s Kospi held on to a small gain.
In the last six months. Japan’s Topix has ratcheted up a gain of more than 20%, while Chinese equities are in the red and Australian stocks have eked out a small gain. A gauge of global developed and emerging-markets shares has rallied almost 12% so far this year.
U.S. stock futures ticked higher. On Thursday, banks led gains on the S&P 500 as the biggest lenders passed the Fed’s stress test, clearing the way for payouts. After rising by more than 35% this year on the strength of artificial intelligence hype, the Nasdaq 100 underperformed.
Brent crude was trading around $74 a barrel, and West Texas Intermediate was below the $70 mark. The yield on the 10-year U.S. bond was trading at 3.84%, whereas Bitcoin was above the $30,000 level.
At 8:10 a.m., the Singapore-traded SGX Nifty, an early indicator of the Nifty 50 Index’s performance in India, was up 0.16%, or 31 points, at 19,181.
Back home, India’s benchmark stock indices advanced for the second day to scale fresh life highs through Wednesday, while markets remained shut on Thursday. The S&P BSE Sensex closed 500 points up, or 0.79%, at 63,915.42, while the NSE Nifty 50 ended 155 points higher, or 0.82%, at 18,972.10.
Foreign portfolio investors mopped up stocks worth Rs 12,350 crore, according to data from the National Stock Exchange. This is the highest value of buying since March 2.
