Asian shares mostly up on hopes Fed will delay rate rise

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Friday advanced 194.90 points to 18,291.80 by the close, while the broader Topix index of all first-section shares rose 1.01 per cent, or 15.12 points, to 1,505.84. The Nasdaq Composite jumped 1.8 percent on Thursday.

The health care sector lifted 2.1 per cent as Valeant Pharmaceuticals (TSX:VRX), one of Canada’s most valuable companies, recovered a few of its steep declines from the previous session.

The Topix index added 1 per cent to 1,506.23 as of 9:48am in Tokyo as about five shares rose for every two that fell. Panasonic is higher by 1 percent and Sharp is up 1.4 percent. The gains come despite the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) issuing a warning in its biannual Financial Stability Review that lending standards for home loans had been looser than first thought, adding to the risks of an eventual downturn in the housing market. But South Korea’s Kospi inched down almost 0.2 percent to 2,030.26. Over the week, the index lost 0.61 percent.

Pharmaceuticals were the outperformers in early trade, with Hanmi Pharmaceutical leading gains by surging 3.6 percent.

Among the other major gainers, Kyowa Hakko Kirin is rising more than 3 percent and Screen Holdings is up 2 percent. TSMC also projected lower revenue for the fourth quarter and cut its capital spending estimate for this year.

The dollar then grew top-heavy and briefly slipped below the ¥119 level in late trading as Bank of Japan Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda showed a bright outlook for the Japanese economy at a meeting of “shinyo kumiai” credit cooperatives and expectations for additional monetary easing by the BOJ weakened as a result.

On Wall Street, stocks rallied on Thursday following the release of a slew of US economic data, including a Labor Department report showing an unexpected drop in initial jobless claims. While the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index jumped by 1.1 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the German DAX Index shot up by 1.4 percent and 1.5 percent, respectively.