The Tokyo stock exchange gained ground again on Friday. Investors engaged in the recovery on Wall Street, where dwindling inflation fears ended a three-day series of losses.
The technology companies, in particular, were bought again, following the strong price gains among American peers. In Hong Kong, however, shares of Chinese technology group Tencent were sold despite better-than-expected results from the owner of the popular chat app WeChat.
Tokyo’s leading Nikkei went up 0.8 percent over the weekend at 28,317.83 points. On a macroeconomic level, it appeared that consumer prices in Japan fell again in April. Rising energy prices were offset by a significant drop in subscription costs for mobile telephony.
The Japanese economy also contracted again in May, according to figures from market researcher Markit. Industry activity did increase, but activity in the services sector declined further due to tougher corona measures in the country and the slow vaccination program.
The Hang Seng index in Hong Kong in the meantime recorded 0.1 percent in the minus Tencent. Tencent fell almost 4 percent. The tech group posted significantly higher profits last quarter thanks to strong sales of its games and cloud services.
However, the company is still facing a hefty fine from the Chinese authorities, who want to tackle the dominance of the major tech companies in the country. Tencent made no further statements about this in the figures update. The main index in Shanghai fell 0.5 percent, and South Korean Kospi lost 0.3 percent.
