Sawt Falasteen - Most Asian markets extend AI-fuelled rally

Shanghai led the winners, eating into year-to-date losses after China unveiled a fresh batch of measures aimed at boosting the country's stock markets as part of Beijing's moves to provide support to the stuttering economy.

Global investors have largely welcomed the first few days of Trump 2.0 as he held off immediately returning to the hardball trade policies of his first term, having pledged to impose stiff tariffs on key partners within hours of returning to the Oval Office.

However, warnings that China, the European Union, Canada and Mexico could be hit as soon as February 1 have given cause for concern.

Tech titans including Nvidia, Microsoft and Arm helped lead a surge in New York, pushing the S&P 500 to within a whisker of a record, after Trump announced a new $500-billion venture to build infrastructure for artificial intelligence in the United States.

Tokyo-listed SoftBank was named in the venture along with cloud giant Oracle and ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and soared more than 10 percent on the news Wednesday.

And it extended the rally Thursday, piling more than five percent even after key Trump ally and world's richest man Elon Musk cast doubt on the scheme and said the main investors "don't actually have the money".

The advance in SoftBank helped Tokyo build on this week's gains, while Singapore, Wellington and Jakarta also rose.

Shanghai added more than one percent and Hong Kong advanced after authorities unveiled measures to steady the market and unblock bottlenecks, including allowing pension funds to invest in listed companies and push firms to boost share purchases.

However, there were losses in Sydney and Manila.

Seoul was the biggest loser after South Korea's central bank said the economy grew in the fourth quarter at its slowest pace of 2024 as the country was hit by the fallout from impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol's brief declaration of martial law.

It also expanded less than expected through the entire year as the political chaos hit consumer confidence.

The dollar edged up against the yen ahead of the Bank of Japan's Friday policy decision, with observers widely expecting it to hike interest rates for the third time since March.

"Economic data continues to support the BoJ's case for a rate hike," said Gregor Hirt at Allianz Global Investors, pointing to upward momentum in core consumer prices.

"Wage growth remains a crucial factor. While governor (Kazuo) Ueda previously indicated the need for 'one more notch of information' before hiking, deputy governor (Ryozo) Himino recently noted strong wage momentum in BoJ branch managers' assessments.

"This may encourage action before actual Shunto wage data becomes available in March. The yen’s renewed weakness adds pressure to act."

- Key figures around 0230 GMT -

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: UP 0.5 percent at 39,830.11 (break)

Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: UP 0.5 percent at 19,873.70

Shanghai - Composite: UP 1.4 percent at 3,258.57

Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0405 from $1.0425 on Wednesday

Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2307 from $1.2313

Dollar/yen: UP at 156.51 yen from 156.45 yen

Euro/pound: UP at 84.54 pence from 84.48 pence

West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 0.4 percent at $75.17 per barrel

Brent North Sea Crude: DOWN 0.3 percent at $78.73 per barrel

New York - Dow: UP 0.3 percent at 44,156.73 (close)

London - FTSE 100: FLAT at 8,545.13 (close)

P.AbuBaker--SF-PST