What happened during the Asian trading session

Asia markets traded in largely positive territory in the morning on the final trading day of the week, following record highs on Wall Street.

Japan's Nikkei 225 continued to advance by 0.5 percent in the morning, with the insurance sector rising by 1.93 percent. The moves came following after a data release earlier showed that the country's nationwide core consumer price index for the month of August rose 0.9 percent compared to a year ago. It was in line with expectations from a Reuters poll but still off the Bank of Japan's inflation target of 2 percent.

"It will be difficult for the Japan inflation (rate) to reach 2 percent before the consumption tax rate is raised," Takuji Okubo, chief economist at Japan Macro Advisors, told CNBC, in reference to the Japanese government's plan to raise the consumption tax rate from 8 to 10 percent in 2019.

Down Under, the ASX 200 rose by 0.5 percent, as the financial sector saw gains of 0.53 percent with most major banks trading in positive territory. Commonwealth Bank of Australia was up by 0.64 percent while Australia and New Zealand Banking Group rose by 0.65 percent.

In currency news, the U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of currencies, was at 93.889 as of 10:28 a.m. HK/SIN, hovering close to its earlier low.

The Japanese yen slid slightly against the dollar at 112.57 yen, while the Australian dollar was largely flat at $0.7289, as of 10:30 a.m. HK/SIN.

picture: pixabay.com

Read more:

• And for all the bounty hunters: Iran offers $80m for the head of Donald Trump
• US service member and 2 US Defense Dept contractors killed in Kenya attack
• Iranian Quds leader Qasem Soleimani has been killed – how are markets reacting
• A calm end of an otherwise loud 2019
• Old but Gold – Top 5 posts of Varchev Finance