Investing.com - Asian shares mostly gained on Friday on prospects for tax cuts in the U.S. with markets cautious following a suspected terrorist shooting in Paris days ahead of presidential polls at the weekend in France.
Japan's Nikkei 225 index rose 0.73%. The Kospi surged 0.81% and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 made gains of 0.58%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index edged up 0.18%, and the Shanghai Composite recovered slightly, up 0.07%.
"Political risk is very much at the forefront but ... financial markets continue to shrug it off. The volatility levels are so low, even if they expected higher volatility given a lot of these geopolitical risks," Taurus Wealth Advisors' Executive Director Michael Preiss said.
Samsung Electronics (KS:005930) rose 2.38% after the release of its new Galaxy S8 smartphone Friday in Seoul. The company said last week that pre-orders for the Galaxy S8 had surpassed those for the S7.
Overnight, U.S. stocks closed higher on Thursday, as risk-on sentiment returned after a strong batch of corporate earnings and bullish comments on tax reform from U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
The three main U.S. indexes remained on track to end the week in positive territory, as corporate earnings overshadowed geopolitical events and weaker than expected economic data.
The Labor Department said Thursday, initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 244,000 for the week ended April 15, which was higher than analysts’ forecast of 242,000.
In a separate report, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia said that the Philly Fed manufacturing index rose to a seasonally adjusted 22.0, from 32.8 in the preceding month.
Elsewhere, investors welcomed bullish comments from U.S. Treasury Steve Mnuchin, after he said the Trump administration is ‘close’ to bringing forward tax reform.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 0.85% higher at 20,578. The S&P 500 added 0.78% and the Nasdaq Composite closed 0.92% higher at 5916.78.