Asian Stock Markets Track Higher on Pandemic, Regulatory Outlooks

Asian stock markets managed to gain for a fourth day, buoyed by US retail data and signs that pandemic lockdowns in Shanghai will ease, with Hong Kong and Tokyo finishing in the green while Shanghai slipped.

Regional exchanges broadly gained.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 opened evenly and rose to the close, finishing up 0.94%. A softer yen against the US dollar boosted export issues.

The Nikkei 225 rose 251.45 to 26,911.20, as gaining issues outnumbered losers 165 to 57. At one point, the gauge gained above the 27,000 level.

The gains belied Cabinet office data that showed Japan's economy fell at an annualized rate of 1.0% in January-March from the previous quarter, as gross domestic product (GDP) figures showed. That translated into a quarterly drop of 0.2%, the Cabinet Office data showed, versus market expectations of a 0.4% drop.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index opened lower but reversed midday and managed to eek out a 0.2% gain. The Shanghai Composite Index retreated 0.3%.

The broad gauge Hang Seng rose 41.76 to 20,644.28 , as gaining issues outnumbered losers 58 to five. The Hang Seng TECH Index slipped 0.3% at the close on Wednesday, ending a three-day run of gains.

On the other exchanges, the S. Korean KOSPI rose 0.21%; the Taiwan TWSE gained 1.81%; the Australian ASX 200 was up 0.97%; the Singapore Straits Times Index rose 0.73%, and the Thai Set advanced 0.36%. In late trading in Mumbai, the Sensex was down 0.20%.