ASIA MIDDAY MOVES | Hong Kong Tech Leads Regional Rally as Waller Cools Fed Hike Fears; KOSPI, TAIEX Advance

According to RTHK and Google Finance, Asian equities climbed at midday on Friday after Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller signaled he would favor holding rates steady this month if disinflation continues, easing hike concerns and lifting technology shares before U.S. jobs data. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 rose 708.05 points, or 1.10%, to 64,922.53 as of 04:32 UTC, adding more than 555 points at one stage in the morning as the yen firmed to around 155.7 per dollar. Chip-sector performance was mixed, with Advantest up 0.56% and Sony up 0.21% while Tokyo Electron slipped 0.08%. Seoul's KOSPI gained 106.91 points, or 1.62%, to 6,686.39 as of 04:32 UTC, led by heavyweight chipmakers. Samsung Electronics rose 2.10% and SK Hynix advanced 3.35%. Hong Kong stocks ended the morning session up 524.29 points, or 2.08%, at 25,737.60, reclaiming the 25,700 level and snapping a four-day losing streak, with main-board turnover near HK$134.6 billion. The Hang Seng Tech Index rose more than 2% to 4,580, with JD.com and Meituan up around 4% or more; Meituan gained 4.57%, Alibaba added 3.44%, Xiaomi rose 3.13% and Tencent gained 2.86%. Taiwan's TAIEX rose 560.97 points, or 1.22%, to 46,418.63 as of 04:32 UTC. Hon Hai gained 3.23%, MediaTek rose 1.27% and TSMC added 0.63%. In mainland China, the Shanghai Composite closed the morning up 13.76 points, or 0.35%, at 3,955.85. The Shenzhen Component rose 0.27% to 13,661 and the ChiNext gained 0.43% to 3,326.