Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading up in the early deals on Monday, after a weaker U.S. dollar helped fuel solid gains on Wall Street. The Chinese markets touched fresh multi-year highs in early trades. Meanwhile the Japanese market is higher, tracking the strong cues from Wall Street on Friday. The gains are despite the impact of a stronger yen. Among the other markets in the Asia-Pacific region, Shanghai is up more than 1 percent. South Korea, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia and Taiwan are also higher.
Nikkei 225 surged 188.51 points or 0.96% to 19,748.73, Hang Seng strengthen 140.04 points or 0.57% to 24,515.28, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI gained 1.83 points or 0.10% to 1,805.48, KOSPI Index added 1.81 points or 0.09% to 2,039.05, Shanghai Composite jumped 58.88 points or 1.63% to 3,676.20, Taiwan Weighted increased 17.41 points or 0.19% to 9,767.85, Jakarta Composite spurt 3.43 points or 0.06% to 5,446.49 and Straits Times was up by 7.07 points or 0.21% to 3,419.51.