Nikkei 225 drives Asian stocks higher

The stocks on the Asian bourses opened mixed on Friday, as traders digested overnight action in the greenback across the board amid Fed’s hawkish bias, with the USD index now hovering near 14-year tops.

The Asian indices quickly regained ground and edged higher, led by a rally in the Japanese stocks after the yen weakened to ten-month lows versus the American dollar, and boosted the exports stocks on the region’s indices.

While the Chinese equities were little affected by a slump in the Yuan to the lowest levels since 2008 per dollar, as ongoing Yuan depreciation refueled capital outflow concerns in China and thus, weighed on the investors’ sentiment.

The Australian stocks gained little traction as overnight sell-off across the commodities’ space on a firmer USD weighted on the resource-heavy index. While concerns over Australia losing its AAA sovereign credit rating also hit the corporate sentiment.

Meanwhile, Japan’s Nikkei 225 rises +0.75% to 19,419, the Australian S&P/ASX 200 gains +0.15% to 5,546. The Chinese equities trade modestly flat, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite index up +0.07%, while CSI300 index trades +0.17% higher. Hong Kong markets also follow suit and edge +0.07% higher at 22,085 levels.