Analyst recaps Asian stock markets' performance on Friday

Hong Kong's stock market ended higher Friday with the benchmark Hang Seng Index up 1.43 percent to close at 25,417.98 points.

The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index gained 1.34 percent to finish at 9,057.22 points, while the Hang Seng Tech Index advanced 1.95 percent to 5,687.45 points.

In Japan, the benchmark Nikkei 225 rose 438.48 points, or 1.03 percent, to close at 43,018.75 points.

Timothy Pope, a market analyst, recapped stock markets' performance of Hong Kong and Japan on Friday.

"The Hang Seng was up 1.4 percent. Gains there were in pretty much every sector. We saw top performers were Chinese solar stocks and the semiconductor giant SMIC was gaining very strongly on the Hang Seng and Chinese biopharma stocks as well. The trajectory in Hong Kong this week has been quite similar to the Chinese Mainland, and today the vast bulk of Hang Seng stocks gained ground. Only a handful of those were falling and that enabled the index to claw back most of the week's losses. It ends Friday, only fractionally lower for the week," he said.

Turning to the Japanese market, he noted: "A lot of the buoyancy we saw on the Japanese market today came from Donald Trump's latest executive order. The US president has lowered tariffs on some Japanese exports, including autos. And while 'Trump changes his mind on tariffs' is a headline that's going to shock nobody. This is a big change for the Japanese economy. It is a meaningful change, definitely one that's going to be welcomed by investors. We saw some solid gains for the likes of Toyota and Honda today. In fact, Toyota was up about 2 percent. The Nikkei's heavyweight chip stocks were also rising. And there are predictions now floating around that the Nikkei will crack 44 thousand points next week."

Analyst recaps Asian stock markets' performance on Friday

The European Commission's autumn 2025 economic forecast shows that driven by a surge in exports in anticipation of U.S. tariff increases, the European Union's (EU) economy maintained growth in the third quarter of this year, and it is expected to continue expanding at a moderate pace over the forecast horizon.

In the report released on Monday, the Commission said the gross domestic product (GDP) of the EU is expected to grow 1.4 percent in 2025, with the eurozone expanding 1.3 percent. Growth in 2026 is forecast at 1.4 percent for the EU and 1.2 percent for the eurozone, both slightly lower than projections made in May.

Eurozone headline inflation is projected to ease to 2.1 percent this year from 2.4 percent in 2024. Inflation across the EU is seen declining from 2.6 percent in 2024 to 2.2 percent in 2027, remaining slightly above the eurozone rate.

Due to the increase in defence spending, the EU's fiscal deficit is expected to rise to 3.4 percent of GDP in 2027 from 3.1 percent in 2024. The EU debt-to-GDP ratio is projected to rise from 84.5 percent in 2024 to 85 percent in 2027, with the eurozone ratio set to rise from around 88 percent to 90.4 percent.

The forecast noted that globally, trade barriers have reached historic highs, and the EU now faces higher average tariffs on exports to the U.S. compared with the spring forecast. Persistent trade policy uncertainty continues to weigh on economic activity, with tariffs and non-tariff restrictions potentially constraining EU growth more than expected. Any escalation in geopolitical tensions could intensify supply shocks, it noted.

EU expects economy to expand moderately