On Friday, the Japanese yen rose, while the country’s stocks lost most of their gains after reports said that Shinzo Abe, the former Prime Minister of Japan, had been shot and was gravely injured. Fumio Kishida, the current Prime Minister, said that the former premier was in critical condition and had condemned the attack harshly.

Japanese markets

There was a 0.1% gain in the Nikkei 225 index in Japan, which closed the day at 26,517.9, while a 0.27% increase in the Topix index was recorded. Earlier in the session, both indexes had seen gains of 1% each, before reports of Abe getting attacked during campaigning had surfaced.

As for the Japanese yen, the currency had last been trading at a value of 135.84 against the US dollar. It had been trading at 135.9 against the greenback earlier in the day.

The former prime minister of Japan is still a heavyweight in the ruling Democratic Party. He had been giving a speech in Nara when he was shot. Japan has its upper house elections scheduled on Sunday and the former premier had been campaigning for them on behalf of the other members of the LDP.

Asia-Pacific markets

As far as other Asian markets are concerned, there was a 0.45% gain in Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 index, which closed the day at 6,678. There was also a 0.7% addition in the Kospi index of South Korea, which closed at 2,350.61, while a 1.12% gain was seen in the Kosdaq leading it to 766.48.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose by 0.12% in the last hour of trading. Mainland Chinese markets had also been rising, but they ended up reversing course and closing lower. There was a 0.25% fall in the Shanghai Composite, which ended the day at 3,356.08, while a 0.6% fall was recorded in the Shenzhen Composite that bringing it down to 12,857.13.

However, there are still concerns of an economic recession and rising prices. Market analysts said that the high inflation was only adding to the risk of a possible economic recession.

As far as corporate news is concerned, SoftBank announced that its CEO of Global Advisers, Rajeev Misra, would be stepping down from his position, but would continue to hold two other positions. There was a 0.22% gain in shares of SoftBank in the Asian markets.

Major US indexes also recorded gains overnight, as there was a 1.12% gain in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, while the S&P 500 climbed by 1.5%. The Nasdaq Composite also advanced by 2.28%.

Currencies

The US dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of its peers, was trading at 107.322. As for the Australian dollar, it had come down to $0.6818, as the currency struggled to gain after the decision of hiking interest rates was announced by the Australian central bank on Tuesday.

However, the Aussie did climb higher on the news that Australian and Chinese foreign ministers would meet for the first time in almost three years.