A number of the larger exchanges in Asia remain closed during the week's last trading day, including the Chinese Shenzhen, Shanghai and the South Korean Kospi.
In Japan, however, trading is proceeding as usual – and the trading day has begun sunny. The Nikkei 225 was up 1.4 percent around lunchtime, and at the same time, the broader Topix index had risen by 1.2 percent.
Among the winners was the technology conglomerate Hitatchi, which had risen by about 9 percent after news of cooperation with the AI company Open AI.
It is going worse in Hong Kong, where the Hang Seng is falling by 0.9 percent.
