Asian shares were mixed on Friday following a sell-off of technology shares on Wall Street.
In Taipei, the TAIEX closed down 0.12 percent at 12,675.95 on turnover of NT$189.942 billion, but was up 0.3 percent from 12,637.95 a week earlier.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 recouped early losses to rise 0.74 percent to 23,406.49, gaining 0.87 percent for the week. The broader TOPIX rose 0.72 percent to 1,636.64 for a weekly increase of 1.24 percent.
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South Korea’s KOSPI gained 0.01 percent to 2,396.69, increasing 1.2 percent from a week earlier, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.83 percent to 5,859.4, dropping 1.12 percent for the week.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.78 percent to 24,503.31, while the Shanghai Composite rose 0.79 percent to 3,260.35.
However, the Hang Seng and the Shanghai Composite were both down from a week earlier, losing 0.78 percent and 2.83 percent respectively.
Analysts say that investors are preoccupied with the COVID-19 pandemic and hopes for development of a safe, effective vaccine.
While Big Tech is benefiting from the shift to online life that the pandemic and stay-at-home economy has accelerated, critics said that their stocks prices have surged too high.
“Big tech stocks might have seemed like safe havens, but they have found themselves at the center of a brutal sell-off,” AxiCorp Financial Services Pty chief global market strategist Stephen Innes said.
The catch is that progress in curbing COVID-19 could hurt technology shares, Innes said.
The latest gyrations on Wall Street followed a wild stretch where the S&P 500 careened from its worst three-day slump since June to its best day in nearly three months.
The selling came as the odds lengthen that the US Congress will deliver more aid to the economy before November’s elections, support that many investors say is crucial after US federal unemployment benefits and other stimulus expired.
Partisan disagreements on Capitol Hill have kept Congress at a seeming impasse.
ING Group senior economist Nicholas Mapa said that risk aversion is dominating Asian trading with the technology sector weighing on overall sentiment.
He said that “investors are struggling to find a catalyst to reverse the recent downtrend with the much-anticipated US fiscal stimulus bill still in limbo.”
Additional reporting by staff writer
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