Asian stocks bounce back on Wall Street lead
Investors welcomed the new developments in Greece.
Asian shares traded higher today (July 21st), boosted by an upbeat overnight session on Wall Street. However, investors remained cautious after yesterday's drop in commodity prices.
All three major US indices edged up, with the Nasdaq Composite marking a third consecutive record close, after Greek banks reopened and Athens started paying off sums owed to international creditors.
The gold price regained 0.6 per cent after falling four per cent yesterday to $1,088.05 (£697) an ounce in Asian trade.
Investors are moving away from gold, considered a haven in times of uncertainty, and turn instead to the US dollar, which keeps rising after the recent release of a string of solid US data and an improvement across global markets. The dollar added about 0.1 per cent against the yen to ¥124.36. The positive economic data led investors to speculate that the US Federal Reserve is close to raise interest rates.
St Louis Fed president James Bullard told Fox Business Network that there was a better than 50 per cent chance that the US central bank would raise interest rates in September.
China's benchmark Shanghai Composite closed 0.7 per cent up to 4018.62, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index was up 0.6 per cent to 25536.43 and Japan's Nikkei 225 gained 0.9 per cent to 20841.97. Australia's S&P ASX 200 edged up 0.4 per cent to 5706.71 while South Korea's Kospi rose 0.5 per cent to 2083.62.
Latest market news
Today 11:14 AM
Today 08:28 AM
Yesterday 03:30 PM