Asian stocks follow Wall Street’s lead, post gains for Thursday

• Asian indexes are climbing, keep pace with Wall Street’s Wednesday close.
• Investor appetite has reversed course, seeking gains after the early week’s pre-holiday washout.

Asian stocks saw gains for Thursday, following Wall Street’s post-Christmas breakout and staking in much-needed gains, although the Asian market’s key major indexes still remain alarmingly off of monthly highs as risk-off  routs continue to threaten stocks.

Japanese markets are seeing firm gains for the day, with the Nikkei 225 climbing 4.45% while the Tokyo Topix index soars 5.30% for the day, clipping above ¥1,507, though the major bourse still remains -18% off of the year’s highs. In China risk appetite’s recovery is seeing muted gains, but nevertheless Chinese indexes are in the green, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng up 0.30% and Shanghai’s CSI 300 holding on-balance at 0.8%.

Australian equities, having been weighed down by sluggish commodity prices and uneasy investors put off by US-China trade tensions, but the ASX 200 is moderately up the day by 1.88%, while emerging markets, the Asian session’s Achilles  heel, are managing to remain on-balance as well, with the broad Asia-Pacific MSCI index climbing 0.50% into the green for Thursday.

Nikkei 225 levels to watch