Asian shares were mixed in muted trading on Friday after Wall Street eked out modest gains amid a tug of war between worries on the worsening coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic and optimism that a vaccine will rescue troubled economies in the future.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 slipped 0.5 percet in afternoon trading to 25,513.91. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 edged down 0.1 percent to 6,539.20. South Korea’s Kospi added less than 0.1 percent to 2,548.37. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.4 percent to 26,460.17, while the Shanghai Composite rose nearly 0.2 percent to 3,368.28.

For its part, the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) rose to 7,169.79 points, up by 2.46 percent or 172.17 points, a day after the surprise 25 basis points cut in the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) key rates that will help aid the recovery of the country’s economy.

“Local shares cross well above 7,100 as investors bought up shares after the surprise cut of the BSP and by hopes that Washington lawmakers still could come together and pass a coronavirus aid relief package to limit the economic damage wrought by the pandemic,” said Luis Limlingan, Regina Capital Development Corp. head of sales.

INVESTORS LOOK TO MORE DATA

Investors worldwide are also looking ahead to data that will be out next week on the health of regional economies, including India, which has been hit hard by the pandemic, as well as Taiwan and Singapore.

“The focus next week in Asia will be the extent of India’s bounce back in the third quarter, as the data in October underscores the renewed threat to the region from the second wave of the pandemic,” said Prakash Sakpal, senior economist Asia at ING.

On Wall Street on Thursday, the S&P 500 rose 0.4 percent after spending much of the day flipping between small losses and gains. The benchmark index was coming off a 1.2-percent slide from the day before that pulled it away from its record of 3,626.91 set on Monday. The late-afternoon burst of buying erased nearly all of the S&P 500′s losses for the week.