South Korea’s Kospi hit a record high for a second day in a row on Friday, boosted by gains in insurers and defensive players.
Samsung Life Insurance rose more than 3.59%, while Mirae Asset Securities rose 3.69%. Defense heavyweight Hanwha Aerospace jumped 6.35%, while its peer Firstec rose as much as 16.7%.
Index heavyweight SK Hynix rose by 3.36%.
However, other Asia-Pacific markets were mostly lower on Friday, after all three major Wall Street indexes fell overnight under pressure from falling private credit stocks and tensions between Iran and the US.
The prospect of an attack on Iran has increased, and US President Donald Trump said that in the next 10 days he will accept the call for a decision on military action against Tehran, reports SEEbiz.
Oil prices continued to rise in reaction to the news, with US crude oil up 0.53% to trade at $66.78 a barrel on Friday. Global benchmark Brent crude rose 0.18% to settle at $71.79.
In Asia, traders are weighing inflation data from Japan, with headline inflation for January falling below the Bank of Japan’s 2% target for the first time in 45 months.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 1.29%, led by utility shares, while the Topix fell 1.3%.
Shares of Sumitomo Pharma, one of the country’s largest pharmaceutical firms, were volatile in early trading, rising as much as 6.81% before falling more than 11%.
