Asian Markets at Highest Levels in 10 Years

On Asian markets on Tuesday, stock prices rose, reaching their highest levels since 2007, as investors breathed a sigh of relief due to the easing tensions regarding North Korea and the weakening of Hurricane Irma.

On the Tokyo Stock Exchange, the Nikkei index was up more than 1 percent around 7:30 AM, while stock prices in Shanghai, Singapore, South Korea, and Australia rose between 0.1 and 0.5 percent.

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In Hong Kong, they stagnate, while the MSCI Asia-Pacific index, excluding Japan, was up 0.2 percent around 7:30 AM, reaching its highest level since late 2007.

The positive sentiment in Asian markets is attributed to yesterday’s jump of the S&P 500 index on Wall Street by more than 1 percent, to a new all-time high.

The reason for this is the easing of tensions regarding North Korea, which lasted for about ten days since that isolated country conducted its sixth and strongest nuclear test to date.

Investors were also encouraged by the weakening of Hurricane Irma, which did not cause as much damage in Florida as investors feared.

Thanks to this, the insurance sector is seeing the largest gains this morning. The MSCI global index for that sector strengthened by 1.5 percent.

Market support is also provided by the stability of oil prices, after they rose by more than 1 percent yesterday, as investors hope that the OPEC agreement on production cuts will extend beyond March of next year.

This morning, the price of a barrel in the U.S. market is around $48.05, and in the London market around $53.80.

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On the currency markets, the dollar is recovering for the second consecutive day, after sharply falling last week.

The price of the dollar against the Japanese currency reached 109.35 yen this morning, while yesterday at this time it was 108.40 yen.

The dollar also strengthened against the European currency, causing the euro exchange rate to slide to $1.1960, while yesterday at this time it was $1.2015. This further distances itself from $1.2092, the highest level since January 2015 that it reached on Friday.