Asia-Pacific markets rise

 Key Points

• Asia-Pacific markets rose in Thursday trade, seeing a continued rebound from fears over the omicron Covid-19 variant.
• Hong Kong-listed shares of Chinese e-commerce titan JD.com plunged 7.95% while Tencent surged 4.2%. Those moves came after Tencent announced it will distribute majority of its shares in JD.com to its shareholders.
• Investors watched for moves in the mainland Chinese markets after the city of Xi’an ordered its 13 million residents to stay at home as it attempts to deal with rising Covid cases, according to Reuters.

SINGAPORE — Shares in Asia-Pacific rose in Thursday trade, as fears over the omicron Covid variant eased.

Hong Kong-listed shares of Chinese e-commerce titan JD.com plunged 7.95% while Tencent surged 4.2%.

Those moves came after Tencent announced it will distribute the majority of its shares in JD.com to its shareholders — valued at 127.7 billion Hong Kong dollars (about $16.37 billion), based on JD’s Wednesday close in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index sat about 0.4% higher as of its final hour of trading.

Mainland Chinese stocks closed higher, with the Shanghai composite up 0.57% to 3,643.34 while the Shenzhen component climbed 0.491% to 14,863.93. Investors continued monitoring Covid developments in the country after the major Chinese city of Xi’an entered a lockdown on Thursday as authorities seek to control a flare-up of Covid cases.

The Nikkei 225 in Japan nudged 0.83% higher to close at 28,798.37 while the Topix index gained 0.91% to 1,989.43. South Korea’s Kospi finished its trading day 0.46% higher at 2,998.17.

Elsewhere, the S&P/ASX 200 in Australia closed 0.31% higher at 7,387.60.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan traded 0.74% higher.

 Source: CNBC