South Korea Leads Gains In Mixed Trading Day For Asia Pacific Stocks

Stocks in Asia Pacific were mixed on Thursday as investors continued to monitor tensions between the U.S. and China.

South Korea’s Kospi jumped 1.33% to close at 2,342.61 as shares of automaker Hyundai Motor soared 7.84%.

Mainland Chinese stocks were mixed on the day, with the Shanghai composite up 0.26% to about 3,386.46 while the Shenzhen component slipped 0.7% to around 13,863.13.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index closed 0.69% lower at 24,930.58.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 dipped 0.43% to close at 22,418.15 while the Topix index shed 0.31% to end the trading day at 1,549.88.

Shares in Australia edged higher as the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.68% to close at 6,042.20.

Overall, the MSCI Asia ex-Japan index was 0.41% higher.
On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that President Donald Trump’sadministration wants to ban “untrusted” Chinese apps such as TikTok and WeChat from U.S. app stores. That development followed tensions between Washington and Beijing heating up in recent weeks.

Meanwhile, a range of issues remains unresolved among lawmakers stateside in coronavirus relief negotiations, with the White House threatening to act on its own if it fails to reach a deal with Democrats.

On the earnings front, Japanese automaker Toyota Motor reported that first-quarter net income attributable to the company plunged 74.3% from last year. Shares of Toyota jumped 2.29% on Thursday.

Shares of Singapore bank DBS Group rose 2.87% on Thursday after the firm reported a second-quarter net profit that beat estimatesdespite falling about 22% from last year. DBS said its profit for the second quarter came in at 1.25 billion Singapore dollars ($912.9 million). That compared against an average estimate of 1.19 billion Singapore dollars, according to Refinitiv data. 

– CNBC.