March 17, 2016 - 4:10 PM EDT
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Asian stocks mostly higher after US gains; Tokyo stocks down

SEOUL, South Korea
(AP) — Asian stocks mostly advanced on Friday as higher prices for commodities, including crude oil, pushed Wall Street stocks higher overnight. But shares in
Tokyo
fell as the yen's strength worried investors.

KEEPING SCORE:

Japan's
Nikkei 225 fell 1.7 percent to 16,643.02 while
South Korea's
Kospi added 0.1 percent to 1,990.97.
Hong Kong's
Hang Seng index rose 0.7 percent to 20,639.83. Shanghai Composite index in mainland
China
rose 1.9 percent to 2,959.45 while
Australia's
S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.3 percent to 5,181.10. Stocks in
Taiwan
,
Singapore
and
Indonesia
were higher.

ANALYST'S TAKE: "A lot of the worries on the worry list from early this year have faded," Shane Oliver, head of investment strategy at AMP Capital in

Sydney, Australia
, said in a daily commentary. Oliver cited the stabilization of the Chinese renminbi, the halt in the
U.S.
dollar's rise, eased fears about a
U.S.
recession and higher crude oil and commodity prices.
JAPAN
: The stronger yen added to selling pressure in
Tokyo
, given concerns over the likely impact on profits of major exporters. Tokyo Motor Corp.'s shares fell 2.5 percent, Nissan Motor Corp. was down 2.8 percent and robot maker Fanuc Corp. lost 1.8 percent.

WALL STREET: Wall Street finished higher on Thursday as commodity price gains boosted energy companies. The Dow Jones rose 0.9 percent to 17,481.49. The Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 0.7 percent to 2,040.59. The Nasdaq composite rose 0.2 percent to 4,774.99.

OIL: Benchmark

U.S.
crude rose 7 cents to $40.27 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $1.74, or 4.5 percent to finish at $40.20 per barrel on Thursday, closing above $40 a barrel for the first time since early December. Brent crude, the benchmark for international oils, inched down 3 cents to $41.51 per barrel in
London
. Oil prices are now higher than they were at the end of 2015, but still far lower they have been for most of the last decade.

CURRENCIES: The dollar extended losses that began with the Federal Reserve's decision to slow the pace of its rate increases while the yen gathered strength as investors sought safe haven assets. The dollar fell to 111.28 yen from 111.30 yen. The euro was flat at $1.1318.

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Source: Equities.com News (March 17, 2016 - 4:10 PM EDT)

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