Asian stocks up after Dow breaks through 20,000 milestone

SEOUL, Korea, Republic Of — Shares advanced across Asia on Thursday, the last full trading day before many markets start Lunar New Year holidays, as investors cheered the Dow Jones industrial average’s first ever close above the 20,000 milestone.

KEEPING SCORE: Japan’s Nikkei 225 surged 1.8 per cent to 19,402.39 and South Korea’s Kospi gained 0.8 per cent to 2,083.59. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index advanced 1.3 per cent to 23,342.53. The Shanghai Composite index rose 0.3 per cent to 3,159.17 and benchmarks in Southeast Asia were also higher. Australian and Indian markets are closed for holidays.

LUNAR NEW YEAR: Markets in China, Hong Kong, South Korea and other countries are about to begin holidays of varying lengths to mark the lunar new year, curtailing trading across much of the region.

ANALYST’S TAKE: “Asian markets are slated for higher prices in the day with the jubilance from Wall Street and ahead of the Chinese New Year holidays,” said Jingyi Pan, a market strategist at IG in Singapore. “Into the end of the week, Asian markets excluding Japan have been showing substantial resilience.”