ASIA MARKET OPEN | Hong Kong Leads Asia Higher on Dovish Fed Cues, Tencent and Alibaba Gain

According to Yonhap, the Hong Kong Economic Times and Yicai, Asian equities opened broadly higher on Friday after Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller struck a dovish tone, easing rate-hike worries and lifting Wall Street more than 1% overnight. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 opened firmer, trading at 64,653.54, up 0.68% or 439.06 points, as of 01:39 UTC. Chip-related names were mixed, with Tokyo Electron up 0.17% while Advantest eased 0.28% and Sony slipped 0.33%. Seoul's KOSPI opened at 6,654.36, up 74.88 points, and extended gains to 6,662.92, up 1.27%, as of 01:39 UTC. Samsung Electronics rose 1.50% and SK Hynix added 2.82%. Hong Kong stocks opened strongly, with the Hang Seng Index up 302 points at 25,515 and the Hang Seng Tech Index up 1.5% at 4,533; the benchmark extended its advance to 25,684.81, up 1.87%, as of 01:39 UTC. Tencent gained about 2%, Alibaba rose close to 2%, and Zijin Mining added 4% alongside firmer gold prices, while Lenovo jumped 6% in early trade. Taiwan's TAIEX opened up 133.62 points at 45,991.28 and rallied as much as nearly 750 points, trading at 46,168.74, up 0.68% or 311.08 points, as of 01:39 UTC. TSMC opened higher by NT$25 at 2,400.00, up 0.42%, and MediaTek rose 1.38%. In mainland China, the Shanghai Composite opened up 0.34%, the Shenzhen Component gained 0.74%, the ChiNext Index rose 0.97% and the STAR Market Composite added 0.92%, with more than 4,000 stocks advancing.