Shares in Asia-Pacific were mostly higher on Thursday as investors in Asia-Pacific continued monitoring the situation surrounding China Evergrande Group.
Japanese markets were shuttered for holiday.
The Japanese yen traded at 109.95 per U.S. dollar after weakening yesterday from below 109.5 against the greenback.
The Hang Seng returned from holiday to balloon 289.44 points, or 1.2%, to 24,510.98.
Shares of China Evergrande Group in the city jumped 17.6%, paring some gains after soaring more than 20% earlier. That was also after days of losses — although its year-to-date plunge is still more than 80%.
Reuters reported Thursday that China Evergrande Group’s chairman said the firm’s top priority is to help wealth investors redeem their products, though questions remained over whether the embattled Chinese developer will pay the interest due on a dollar-denominated bond on Thursday.
Shares of other Hong Kong-listed Chinese property developers were also up: China Vanke jumped 4.5%, while Sun Hung Kai was up 2.8%. Country Garden soared 7.2%.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong-listed shares of HSBC rose 2.5%. Those gains came after HSBC’s CEO said he does not see direct impact from Evergrande’s debt problems on the lender, according to Reuters.
The Australian dollar changed hands at $0.7266, below levels around $0.728 seen earlier in the week.
In other markets
In China, the CSI 300 docked 31.43 points or 0.7%, to 4,853.20
In Korea, the Kospi returned from holiday to dock 12.93 points, or 0.4%, to 3,127.58.
In Taiwan, the Taiex shot higher 152.4 points, or 0.9%, to 17,078.22.
In Singapore, the Straits Times regained 28.39 points, or 0.9%, to 3,076.44
In New Zealand, the NZX 50 picked up 90.13 points, or 0.7%, to 13,305.93
In Australia, the ASX 200 surged 73.27 points, or 1%, at 7,370.22
