Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading up in the early deals on Monday, as investor sentiment was lifted by the positive lead from Wall Street and China's central bank cut its benchmark interest rate for the third time in six months, hoping to reinvigorate waning growth in the world's No. 2 economy. The Japanese market gained after China cut interest rates over the weekend while Wall Street gained on strong US jobs data, helping offset a plunge in shares of Sharp Corp and Toshiba Corp. Among the other markets in the Asian region, Japan, Shanghai, South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia are up with modest gains While, Taiwan is lower.
Nikkei 225 gained 233.25 points or 1.20% to 19,612.44, Hang Seng surged 137.29 points or 0.50% to 27,714.63, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI added 4.32 points or 0.24% to 1,811.97, KOSPI Index jumped 19.16 points or 0.92% to 2,104.68, Shanghai Composite spurt 49.62 points or 1.18% to 4,255.54, Jakarta Composite increased 2.71 points or 0.05% to 5,184.92 and Straits Times was up by 14.55 points or 0.42% to 3,466.56. On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted was down by 12.83 points or 0.13% to 9,679.17.