Asia trades higher with investor sentiment supported by positive vaccine news
Asia Pacific markets rose in early trade on Tuesday after investor sentiment was supported by a slew of positive news on the coronavirus vaccine front.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 gained 0.63% and the Topix index rose 0.17%. South Korea’s Kospi index was up 0.94% while in Australia, the benchmark ASX 200 added 0.7%.
Tuesday’s session followed overnight gains on Wall Street due to a strong performance in technology shares.
“Global equities kicked off the trading week on a positive note as vaccine hopes supported optimism,” Felicity Emmett, a senior economist at ANZ, wrote in a morning note.
Pfizer and BioNTech reported early positive data on a joint coronavirus vaccine candidate. Another candidate from Oxford University and AstraZeneca also showed a positive immune response in an early trial.
The coronavirus pandemic, which was first reported in China late last year, has infected more than 14.6 million people and killed over 608,000.
European leaders continued negotiations on Monday over an economic recovery fund to help countries combat the effects of the pandemic. Reuters reported that a proposal submitted to lift the bloc out of a Covid-19-induced recession included 390 billion euros of grants and 360 billion euros of loans. It is meant as a basis for a compromise agreement, the news wire said.
Reference: CNBC
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