Asian Shares Rise Led By Tech Stocks; Nikkei Scales Record High

(RTTNews) - Asian stocks advanced on Thursday as investors cheered Nvidia's strong Q4 earnings results, driven by demand for its chips to power artificial intelligence.

Gold ticked higher in Asian trade while the dollar dipped ahead of PMI data releases from Europe and the U.S.

Oil prices recovered some ground after falling around 1 percent Wednesday on demand concerns.

Chinese shares rallied, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite index climbing 1.27 percent to 2,988.36 after the country banned major institutional investors from selling equity holdings during the 30 minutes at the open and close of each trading day. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rose 1.45 percent to 16,742.95.

Japanese markets posted strong gains despite data showing that factory activity extended declines and service sector growth eased in February.

The Nikkei average jumped 2.19 percent to 39,098.68, breaking its previous record set in December 1989.The broader Topix index settled 1.27 percent higher at 2,660.71.

SoftBank Group, the parent of British chip designer Arm Holdings, jumped 5.1 percent while chip-making equipment maker Tokyo Electron rallied 6 percent and Advantest soared 7.5 percent.

Seoul stocks eked out modest gains, with the Kospi average rising 0.41 percent to 2,664.27 as the Bank of Korea left interest rates unchanged for a ninth straight meeting.

Memory-chip maker SK Hynix, which supplies to Nvidia, ended up a little more than 5 percent.

Australian markets fluctuated before ending marginally higher for the day as the country's private sector activity signaled a return to growth in February, the first time in five months and at the fastest pace since April 2023.

Financials declined, offsetting gains among energy stocks and utilities. Qantas Airways slumped 6.8 percent after the airline reported a 13 per cent fall in its post-tax profit to $873 million in the six months to December 2023.

Across the Tasman, New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX-50 index climbed 0.86 percent to close at 11,690.25 despite trade activity in January showing notable downturn.

U.S. stocks ended mixed overnight as Nvidia earnings loomed and minutes from the Federal Reserve's Jan. 30-31 meeting revealed most officials remain wary of cutting interest rates "too quickly," fearing progress on inflation could stall out.

The Dow and the S&P 500 recovered from earlier losses to end about 0.1 percent higher while the the-heavy Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.3 percent to extend losses for the third straight session.