Asian stock indexes were mostly up Friday after Thursday’s modest gains on Wall Street. Investor hopes that governments and central banks would provide help for the world economy in order to avert a global recession caused by the coronavirus pandemic seemed responsible for at least temporarily halting the plunge. In South Korea, stocks opened 3.44% higher than Thursday, with the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index 50.19 points up. In Taiwan the main stock index rose 5.46% or 474.03 points to 9,155.37. In Hong Kong the Hang Seng Index began trading up 438 points, as news of no new coronavirus transmitted cases came from China for the second day in a row but fell 900 points in in the middle of the session. In China Shanghai Composite Index was only less than half a percent higher. In Japan, the Tokyo stock exchange was closed for a public holiday.
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