Asian shares track Wall St rally on upbeat consumer data

Bangkok: Shares advanced in Asia on Thursday after a rally on Wall Street as investors welcomed a report showing US consumer confidence is holding up despite the Federal Reserve's campaign to fight inflation by raising interest rates. Hong Kong's Hang Seng jumped more than 2 per cent and benchmarks also rose in Tokyo, Sydney and Seoul. Shanghai and Mumbai declined. US futures and oil prices were modestly higher. Markets got a boost from a report showing US consumer confidence is surprisingly strong, despite inflation squeezing wallets. The Conference Board's consumer confidence index rose to 108.3 in December from 101.4 in November. That pushed the index to its highest level since April.

Last month's figure was the lowest since July. Asian markets also got a lift from the overnight rally in tech shares, which spilled into trading in Hong Kong. E-commerce giant Alibaba jumped 4.8 per cent while online services company Tencent gained 3.9 per cent. Online shopping and food delivery platform Meituan picked up 5.7 per cent. By mid-afternoon, the Hang Seng was up 2.3 per cent at 19,595.69, while the Shanghai Composite index fell 0.3 per cent to 3,058.71. "Asian stocks picked up where the US market left off, with technology and property companies leading the charge after a profusion of comments from regulators on supporting broader markets," Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 was 0.5 per cent higher at 26,507.87 and the Kospi in Seoul rose 1.1per cent to 2,353.85. In Sydney, the S and P/ASX 200 advanced 0.5 per cent to 7,152.50.