May 31, 2022: -On Friday, hares in Asia-Pacific broadly increased, with investors monitoring shares of Alibaba in Hong Kong after the Chinese tech giant posted fourth-quarter earnings more than expected.

Shares of Alibaba listed in the city grew 12.21% after it reported Thursday’s fourth-quarter earnings of 7.95 yuan per share, excluding items, on revenues of 204.05 billion yuan.

That was higher than analyst expectations for earnings of 7.31 yuan a share on CNY199.25 billion in revenue, according to StreetAccount.

Other Chinese tech stocks in the city also had sizable gains, with Tencent rising 2.27% while Netease surged 4.43%. The broader Hang Seng index in Hong Kong increased 2.89% to close at 20,697.36.

Mainland Chinese stocks are mixing, with the Shanghai Composite up 0.23% to 3,130.24 while the Shenzhen Component declined 0.118% to 11,193.59.

On Wednesday, Chinese authorities held an unprecedented nationwide meeting via teleconference to bolster an economy battered by Covid, with Premier Li Keqiang warning of difficulties “even greater than the severe shock of the pandemic in 2020.”

“Premier Li’s directive for local to better balance COVID controls against economic growth, which has been cited as key to solving all problems, paves a path to a promising turnaround,” said Mizuho Bank’s Vishnu Varathan in a note of Friday.

“The trouble is, this is an attempt at pain relief from, but not quite a panacea for, self-inflicted harm,” said Vishnu, head of economics and strategy at the firm.

The Nikkei 225 in Japan gained 0.66% to close at 26,781.68 as shares of partnership SoftBank Group swelled 3.43%. The Topix index advanced 0.52% to 1,887.30. South Korea’s Kospi finished the trading day 0.98% higher at 2,638.05.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 is surging 1.08% on the day to 7,182.70. Australia’s retail sales increased 0.9% in April to “another record level,” according to a media release from the country’s Bureau of Statistics on Friday.

Following the data release, the Australian dollar changed hands at $0.7144, which holds past the $0.705 level that momentarily decreased below.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan increased by 2.05%.