Asian equity benchmarks are trading up in the early deals on Monday after Hurricane Irma weakened and North Korea marked a weekend holiday with celebrations but refrained from launching more missiles, giving investors some relief. Meanwhile, Japan’s Nikkei rallied to a one-week high after the dollar recovered against the yen, lifting recently battered exporters and financial stocks which had stumbled amid the simmering tensions on the Korean peninsula. Among the other Asian markets, Shanghai, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Malaysia are also higher, Bucking the trend, Taiwan is in negative territory.
Nikkei 225 rose 258.82 points or 1.34% to 19,533.64, Hang Seng added 273.78 points or 0.99% to 27,942.25, KOSPI Index gained 18.02 points or 0.77% to 2,361.74, Jakarta Composite increased 15.09 points or 0.26% to 5,872.21, Shanghai Composite strengthened 4.32 points or 0.13% to 3,369.56, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI spurt 1.85 points or 0.1% to 1,781.75 and Straits Times was up by 4.84 points or 0.15% to 3,233.40.
On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted was down by 36.74 points or 0.35% to 10,573.21.