Asian Stocks Start May On A Positive Note

(RTTNews) - Asian bourses closed on a positive note on Friday tracking Wall Street's strong performance on Thursday. Gains were limited as markets suspected currency market interventions by the Japanese government. The persisting geopolitical stress from the Middle East also capped gains. Markets in China, Hong Kong and South Korea are closed for a holiday.

The Japanese benchmark Nikkei 225 added 228 points or 0.38 percent to close trading at 59,513.12, amidst caution as the yen's sharp rally led markets to suspect official intervention by the government in the currency market. The day's trading ranged between 59,706.70 and 59,263.50.

TOTO jumped 18.4 percent followed by Sumitomo Corp that rallied 17.1 percent. Alps Alpine led losses with a decline of almost 15 percent. Nippon Electric Glass also declined 13.7 percent.

Australia's S&P/ASX200 closed trading at 8,729.80, adding 64 points or 0.74 percent from the previous close of 8,665.80, supported by strong PMI data from China. The day's trading ranged between 8,665.80 and 8,764.10. The index has gained 7.2 percent over the course of the past year.

Liontown Resources led gains with a surge of 12.3 percent followed by IperionX that gained 9.8 percent. Resmed slipped 3.5 percent followed by ANZ Holdings that declined 2.8 percent.

The NZX 50 of the New Zealand Stock Exchange added 136 points or 1.1 percent to close trading at 13,039.20. The day's trading ranged between 12,882.32 and 13,039.20. The index had gained 7.33 percent over the past year.

Fletcher Building topped gains with a surge of 3.94 percent. Goodman Property Trust U followed with gains of 3.7 percent. Serko led losses with a decline of 5.3 percent, followed by Sky Network Television that shed 2.5 percent.

Wall Street had closed on a strong positive note on Thursday supported by solid first-quarter earnings reports. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 1.6 percent to finish trading at 49,652.14. The S&P 500 also rallied more than a percent to finish trading at 7,209.01. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained 0.89 percent to close trading at 24,892.31.