SINGAPORE – Asia Pacific stocks rose Monday morning and several markets in North Asia were closed for the New Year holidays.
South Korea’s Kospi led to gains in the region with an increase of 1.35%.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 rose 1.09% in early trading while the Topix index rose 0.82%.
Government data released on Monday showed that Japan’s economy grew 12.7% on an annualized basis between October and December last year. According to Reuters, the preliminary value for the gross domestic product for the fourth quarter was above the economists’ average estimate of 9.5%.
Australian stocks rose, with the S & P / ASX 200 up 0.9%.
MSCI’s broadest index for stocks in the Asia-Pacific region rose 0.37%.
The markets in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and the USA are closed on Mondays for public holidays.
Oil prices jump
Oil prices were higher on the morning of trading hours in Asia and the international benchmark’s Brent crude oil futures rose 1.22% to $ 63.19 a barrel. US crude oil futures rose 1.66% to $ 60.46 a barrel.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback versus a basket of its peers, stood at 90.43 after weakening against the 91.2 handle earlier this month.
The Japanese yen was trading at 105.03 per dollar, weaker than below 104.8 versus the greenback last week. The Australian dollar was trading at $ 0.7762 after rising below $ 0.772 last week.
