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Asian markets rise on oil rebound and Australia rate cut | |
(35 minutes later) | |
Asian markets are mostly rising after a rebound in US crude oil prices led to a rally on Wall Street. | Asian markets are mostly rising after a rebound in US crude oil prices led to a rally on Wall Street. |
Brent crude, the global benchmark, and WTI, the US standard, both rose more than 3% despite a nationwide strike at several US refineries. | Brent crude, the global benchmark, and WTI, the US standard, both rose more than 3% despite a nationwide strike at several US refineries. |
Sentiment was also lifted after the Reserve Bank of Australia cut interest rates for the first time in 18 months to counter an economic slowdown. | |
It reduced borrowing costs by 25 basis points to a record low of 2.25%. | |
Australia's stock market rose on the news but the Australian dollar fell by 1.2% against the US dollar. | |
Earlier in the day, Australia also posted its smallest trade deficit in nine months in December. | |
The trade shortfall of A$436m (£226m) was significantly lower than economist estimates of a A$850m trade gap due to an increase in exports amid low commodity prices. | |
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index and Japan's Nikkei were both down 0.3% . | |
The Shanghai Composite was up 0.4% and South Korea's Kospi traded flat. | |
One of the biggest stock movers on Tuesday was Hong Kong-based financial group Sun Hung Kai. | One of the biggest stock movers on Tuesday was Hong Kong-based financial group Sun Hung Kai. |
Sun Hung Kai shares rallied more than 8% to their highest level since 2007 after China's Everbright Securities agreed to buy a stake in one of its financial units for $529m. |