SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Asian shares rose on Friday after U.S. equities were buoyed by a rebound in technology stocks, while markets in Seoul were underpinned by optimism as leaders of North and South Korea held their first summit in over a decade.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.4 percent, but still looked set to shed 1.2 percent for the week.
South Korea’s KOSPI briefly rose more than 1 percent to a one-month high, helped by hopes that the summit could ease tensions over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons programme and pave the way for the North and South to end their decades-long conflict.
South Korean equities later pared their gains to 0.6 percent, while the South Korean won rose 0.4 percent against the dollar in onshore trade.
“The easing of tension and the possibility of a peace treaty coming on the horizon are bullish for the won and KOSPI,” said Mingze Wu, FX trader of global payments for INTL FCStone Ltd in Singapore.
“However, ... it will be difficult to imagine a new bullish trend emerging just from this,” Wu said.
Japan’s Nikkei share average rose 0.6 percent and touched a two-month peak at one point, getting a boost as chip-related firms rallied after brisk earnings forecasts from Advantest and Kyocera.
The firmer tone of Asian equities came after each of Wall Street’s major indexes rose 1 percent or more on Thursday, boosted by solid earnings results and a rebound in technology stocks. [.N]
Amazon.com Inc shares jumped more than 6 percent in after-market trading after the online retailer reported a 43 percent surge in first-quarter revenue.
