Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading higher on Monday, as the market sentiments got boosted with the continued rollout of vaccines and falling coronavirus infection rates in different part of the world. Modest gains in Wall street in Friday trade also cheered the sentiments. The markets continued to benefit from upbeat news on the earnings front and news that Johnson & Johnson has applied for an emergency use authorization from the FDA for its single-dose coronavirus vaccine. Japan’s Nikkei is advancing followed by the news that Japan will consider lifting its coronavirus state of emergency in some prefectures as a new law that allows fines for social distancing violations goes into effect Saturday.
Nikkei 225 up by 522.14 points or 1.81% to 29,301.33, Straits Times rose by 17.36 points or 0.60% to 2,924.47, Hang Seng increased by 192.03 points or 0.66% to 29,480.71,Taiwan Weighted enlarged 96.18 points or 0.61% to 15,802.40, Jakarta Composite higher by 49.90 points or 0.81% to 6,201.63, Shanghai Composite widened by 37.05 points or 1.06% to 3,533.38 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI lifted by 3.66 points 0.23% to 1,582.29.
On the flip side, KOSPI Index down 1.94 points or 0.06% to 3,118.69.
