The relative calm continued to dominate market movements during the Asian session, with preparing for the new year, as positive economic data from the Asian region, particularly Japan, boosted investor confidence in the economy in 2018. As Japan's economic data improved, the yen rose against the US dollar weighting on the performance of Japanese stocks.
Japan's Nikkei fell by 0.6% to 22,783.98, while many other Asian stocks rose. South Korea's Kospi Index rose by 1.3% to 2467.49, Hong Kong's Hang Sang rose by 0.8% to 29825.09, China's Shanghai index rose by 0.6% to 3296.38. Finally, the Australian ASX 200 rose by 0.3% to 6289.12.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index was heading towards a record closing to offset some of its losses in late November, one of the biggest gains of the year.
The greenback was down against most major currencies, with the USDJPY dropping by 0.4% to 112.89, while the sterling rose by 0.2% to 1.3430 and EURUSD rose by 0.3% to 1.1928.
Gold futures rose by 0.3% to $ 1291.60 an ounce and West Texas crude by 0.3% to $ 59.77 a barrel. Australian 10-year yields were 2.67% down more than 2 basis points.
