Asian equity markets rallied strongly in early trade on Wednesday, after Australia and India cut interest rates and after Senator Barack Obama swept to victory in the US presidential election. A regional benchmark, the MSCI Asia Pacific index, gained more than 4 per cent as all the stock markets open for trading in the region – save the Philippines – rose.
Asian markets (Wed)
4:30am BST
Nikkei up 264.49 at 9379.09
Hang Seng up 728.17 at 15,112.51
Topix up 43.69 at 954.39
US markets (Tue)
DJIA up 305.45 at 9625.28
Nasdaq up 53.79 at 1,780.12
S&P500 up 39.45 at 1005.75
European markets (Tue)
FTSE100 up 196.22 at 4639.50
Eurofirst 300 up 40.43 at 974.15
Currencies
4:20am BST
€/$ 1.29250 (1.25720)
$/¥ 99.6700 (98.7100)
£/$ 1.58350 (1.56870)
Commodities
4:25am BST
Brent Crude (Dec08) down 1.79 at 64.65
100 Oz Gold (Dec08) down 0.7 at 756.6
5000 Oz Silver (Dec08) up 9 at 1,022.0
Comex Copper (Dec08) down 2.8 at 193.0
10-year government bond yields (%)
US 3.77 (3.91)
UK 4.48 (4.49)
Germany 3.79 (3.84)
Japan 1.52 (1.49)
Sources: FT, Reuters