SINGAPORE — Stocks in Asia-Pacific were mostly higher in Wednesday morning trade after major indexes on Wall Street surged to record highs overnight.
South Korea’s Kospi led gains among the region’s major markets as it gained 1.37%. In Japan, the Nikkei 225 was fractionally higher while the Topix index added 0.52%
Elsewhere, shares in Australia were little changed, as the S&P/ASX 200 sat below the flatline.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan traded 0.32% higher.
Australia’s economy expanded 3.3% quarter-on-quarter in September, according to data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday. That smashed expectations for a 2.6% rise by economists in a Reuters poll and followed a 7% quarter-on-quarter contraction in the June quarter.
Following that release, the Australian dollar changed hands at $0.7385, after touching an earlier low of $0.7362.
Wall Street sees new records
In coronavirus vaccine developments, Pfizer and BioNTech said Tuesday that they have applied to the European Medicines Agency for conditional marketing authorization of their coronavirus vaccine. If authorization is granted, it could enable use of the vaccine in Europe this month, according to BioNTech.
Currencies
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 91.191 following a decline earlier this week from levels above 91.5.
The Japanese yen traded at 104.29 per dollar, off levels below 104.1 against the greenback seen earlier in the trading week.
— CNBC’s Holly Ellyatt contributed to this report.
Source: CNBC