Asia-Pacific shares set to rise following overnight Wall Street bounce

SINGAPORE — Shares in Asia-Pacific were set to trade higher at the Friday open following an overnight bounce on Wall Street.

Futures pointed to a higher open for Japanese stocks. The Nikkei futures contract in Chicago was at 28,240 while its counterpart in Osaka was at 28,210. That compared against the Nikkei 225’s last close at 28,098.25.

Stocks in Australia also looked poised for a positive start, with the SPI futures contract at 7,042, against the S&P/ASX 200’s last close at 7,019.60.

In corporate developments, investors will watch shares of Tencent in Hong Kong after the Chinese tech behemoth posted a 65% surge in its quarterly profit on Thursday.

Overnight stateside, the S&P 500 gained around 1.1% to 4,159.12 while the Nasdaq Composite surged 1.77% to 13,535.74. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 188.11 points to 34,084.15. Those gains on Wall Street came on the back of three straight days of losses.

The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 89.808 — off levels above 90 seen earlier in the week.

The Japanese yen traded at 108.80 per dollar, stronger than levels above 109.2 against the greenback seen earlier this week. The Australian dollar changed hands at $0.7774 following a recent rise from around $0.772.