Asia-Pacific markets mixed as SoftBank stock soars; bitcoin touches record high
SINGAPORE — Shares in Asia-Pacific were mixed on Tuesday following overnight gains on Wall Street that took the major indexes to record closing highs. Meanwhile, bitcoin touched a record high
Shares of Japanese conglomerate SoftBank Group soared 10.5% after the firm announced a plan to buy back up to one trillion yen ($8.83 billion) of its own shares. SoftBank on Monday reported a 398 billion yen ($3.5 billion) net loss in the three-month period ended Sept. 30
Japan’s broader Nikkei 225 dipped 0.75% to close at 29,285.46 while the Topix index fell 0.81% to 2,018.77
Mainland Chinese stocks finished the trading day higher as the Shanghai composite climbed 0.24% to 3,507 while the Shenzhen component advanced 0.435% to 14,571.93. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose about 0.1% as of its final hour of trading
| TICKER | COMPANY | NAME | PRICE | CHANGE | %CHANGE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| .N225 | Nikkei 225 Index | *NIKKEI | 29285.46 | -221.59 | -0.75 |
| .HSI | Hang Seng Index | *HSI | 24813.13 | 49.36 | 0.2 |
| .AXJO | S&P/ASX 200 | *ASX 200 | 7434.2 | -18 | -0.24 |
| .SSEC | Shanghai | *SHANGHAI | 3507 | 8.37 | 0.24 |
| .KS11 | KOSPI Index | *KOSPI | 2962.46 | 2.26 | 0.08 |
| .FTFCNBCA | CNBC 100 ASIA IDX | *CNBC 100 | 10239.67 | 14.68 | 0.14 |
South Korea’s Kospi closed fractionally higher at 2,962.46. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.24% on the day to 7,434.20
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan gained 0.23%
Bitcoin surges to record high
Bitcoin rose to a record high during Asia trading hours, with the cryptocurrency trading at $68,106.91 as of 2:23 a.m. ET Tuesday, according to data from Coin Metrics. Ether also hit an all-time high, trading at $4,820
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 93.918 after a recent decline from above 94.2
The Japanese yen traded at 112.83 per dollar, stronger than levels above 113.5 seen against the greenback yesterday. The Australian dollar was at $0.7425, still off levels above $0.75 seen last week
