Asian markets have made a positive start taking cues from the US data and as European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said that the bank stands ready to buy bonds to ease the region’s debt crisis. Japanese shares gained the most before the Bank of Japan (BOJ) conclude a policy meeting, while the yen slid against most of its peers, the weakest since Sept 19 and supported the sentiments. However, BOJ, which last month boosted its asset-purchase program by 10 trillion yen to 55 trillion yen, is unlikely to take any further easing steps. The South Korea market too was trading up as won climbed to an 11 month high before jobs data in the US.
Hang Seng was up by 84.26 points or 0.40% to 20,992.21, Jakarta Composite was up by 35.37 points or 0.87% to 4,311.88, KLSE Composite was marginally up by 2.04 points or 0.12% to 1,663.59, Nikkei 225 was higher by 37.36 points or 0.42% to 8,861.95, Straits Times was up by 1.27 points or 0.04% to 3,087.79, Kospi Composite gained 6.52 points or 0.28% to 1,999.03 and Taiwan Weighted added 15.23 points or 0.19% to 7,697.32.
Financial markets in China remained closed.