Investing.com - Most Asia-Pacific markets saw an uptick on the final trading day of 2023, as investors evaluated the potential of electric vehicle (EV) companies following the unveiling of Xiaomi's first EV in China.
BY 12:30 pm AEDT on Friday, the S&P/ASX 200 index in Australia experienced a slight dip of 0.3%. This drop cooled off the momentum from two consecutive sessions of gains but left the index with an annual increase of 7.76%.
The markets in China and Hong Kong are expected to draw significant attention after Xiaomi, the Chinese consumer electronics company, announced plans to penetrate the already saturated Chinese EV market on Thursday. With a development cost of over 10 billion yuan (approximately $1.4 billion), Xiaomi seeks to compete with automotive giants such as Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) and Porsche (ETR:P911_p).
Hong Kong's Hang Seng Futures stood at 17,134, indicating a potentially higher opening compared to the HSI's previous close of 17,043.53. Despite rallying over 2% each in the previous session, the China and Hong Kong indexes are still projected to be the biggest percentage losers for the year among major Asia-Pacific markets. China's CSI 300 index is down 11.8% for the year, while the Hang Seng has plunged 13.8% in 2023.
Japan's Nikkei 225 opened with a slight fall of 0.4% but has seen an overall gain of 28.5% this year, making it the top-performing market in Asia. The broader Topix was up by 0.12% after having surged over 25% in 2023.
South Korea's KOSPI 200 opened with a rise of 1.6%, while the small-cap Kosdaq added 0.79%.
Meanwhile, in the US, the S&P 500 ended Thursday slightly higher, nearing a new all-time high on the penultimate trading day of a strong year for stocks. The broad market index rose 0.04% to finish at 4,783.35, placing it within reach of its highest closing level of 4,796.56 set in January 2022. The Dow Jones Industrial Average increased by 0.14%, reaching a fresh record closing high. The Nasdaq Composite, however, fell slightly by 0.03%.
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