Asian shares mostly drifted higher on Friday, the last trading day of 2017, after Wall Street finished with modest gains.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 finished 0.1 per cent lower at 22,764.94. The Tokyo benchmark index rose 19 per cent in 2017. China’s Shanghai Composite Index added 0.2 per cent to 3,301.20.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index gained 0.3 per cent to 29,949.05. But Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 went south. It fell 0.4 per cent to 6,065.10. South Korean stock markets closed on Thursday, reports AP.
US stocks finished with on Thursday, one day before the final trading day of this year. The S&P 500 index rose 0.2 per cent to 2,687.54. The Dow gained 0.3 per cent to 24,837.51.
The Nasdaq added 0.2 per cent to 6,950.16. The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks picked up 0.3 per cent to 1,548.93.
Benchmark US crude rose 40 cents to $60.24 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It rose 20 cents to settle at $59.84 per barrel on Thursday.
Brent crude, which is used to price international oils, gained 40 cents to $66.56 per barrel in London.
The dollar declined to 112.66 yen from 112.88 yen while the euro strengthened to $1.1954 from $1.1945.
The price of bitcoin rose 3.8 per cent to $14,980.97 as of 0642 GMT, rebounding from a slide, according to the tracking site CoinDesk.
