Asian shares up on new Greek developments
Markets were also boosted by rising Chinese equities amid buying of underperforming shares.
Asian stock markets traded higher today (May 19th) on positive developments in the bailout talks between Greece and its European creditors.
Sentiment was also boosted by a strong overnight session on Wall Street, with Futures for the Dow Jones industrial average and the Standard & Poor's 500 both up 0.3 per cent.
Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said yesterday that he expects an agreement with bailout creditors within the next week. The country has to make a payment of €1.5 billion (£1.09 billion) to the International Monetary Fund on June 5th.
Meanwhile, Chinese equities soared amid buying of underperforming shares. Chinese "investors that got allocations for new IPOs will hold, but those who didn’t get as much as they wanted will deploy excess funds to stocks that have underperformed,” Gerry Alfonso, a trader at Shenwan Hongyuan Group Co. in Shanghai, told Bloomberg.
The Shanghai Composite Index rose 3.1 per cent to 4,417.55 and Tokyo's Nikkei 225 was up 0.7 per cent to 20,026.38. Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.4 per cent to 27,693.54, Seoul's Kospi edged up 0.3 per cent to 2,120.85 and India's Sensex rose 0.6 per cent to 27,841.69. Sydney's S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.8 per cent to 5,615.50.
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