Hong Kong-listed shares of Standard Chartered rose 2.8% by afternoon trading after the company announced a $1 billion share repurchase program.

StanChart also reported 2023 pretax profit of $5.09 billion, up about 18% year-on-year.

The bank earns most of its revenue in Asia.

“We have increased full year dividends, up 50%, and have announced a new $1 billion share buyback, bringing our total shareholder distributions to $5.5 billion since January 2022,” the company said in a statement.

The bank also reported a $850 million impairment charge due to its stake in Chinese lender Bohai Bank.

ÔÇö Shreyashi Sanyal

Declines in China’s commercial housing sales prices narrowed on a month-on-month basis, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics.

The official data showed sales prices of newly built commercial houses in first-tier cities fell 0.3% in January from the previous month, with declines narrowing by 0.1 percentage points from the previous month.

Prices continued to drop from last year, falling 0.5% from a year ago or 0.4 percentage points more than the previous month.

The January data comes after the country’s troubled property market recorded its worst declines in new home prices in nearly nine years at the end of last year.

China’s CSI 300 added 0.2%, set to rise for the ninth straight session if gains hold till the end of the trading day.

ÔÇö Shreyashi Sanyal

The Korean won eased against the U.S. dollar on Friday, a day after the Bank of Korea held interest rates.

The won dipped 0.2%. The BOK held interest rates unchanged at 3.5% as widely expected on Thursday.

Goldman Sachs said Thursday that the central bank could be the first to cut rates.

Analysts at Commerzbank said “diverging views within the board on the direction of rates could also add to volatility. Two board members are also due to be replaced. This could change the dynamics on the board, depending on who will be appointed.”

Stocks in Korea rose, with the Kospi adding 0.5% after the Nvidia’s blockbuster results helped boost semiconductor stocks globally.

ÔÇö Shreyashi Sanyal