All the Asian equity benchmarks are trading higher in the early deals on Monday, tracking cues from Wall Street where stocks posted strong gains on Friday amid easing concerns about the situation in Ukraine. Bargain hunting after last week's setbacks too contributed significantly to the upmove in some of the markets in the region. On the regional front, the Japanese market opened on a bright note, tracking Wall Street cues and on a fairly stronger greenback. The Chinese stocks improved due to speculation that subdued inflation will give policy makers more scope to loosen monetary policies to support growth. Among other markets in the Asia-Pacific region, Indonesia, South Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Singapore are all trading notably higher.
Nikkei 225 soared 311.23 points or 2.11% to 15,089.60, Hang Seng increased by 288.67 points or 1.19% to 24,620.08, KOSPI Index gained 15.29 points or 0.75% to 2,046.39, Straits Times spurted by 23.18 points or 0.70% to 3,312.07, Jakarta Composite rose 40.92 points or 0.81% to 5,094.68, Shanghai Composite improved 23.57 points or 1.07% to 2,218.00, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI surged by 6.03 points or 0.33% to 1,845.90 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 80.68 points or 0.89% to 9,166.64.68 points or 0.89% to 9,166.64.