Asian stock markets, led by Japan, are mostly higher on Tuesday following the positive cues overnight from Wall Street after British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca said its coronavirus vaccine candidate being developed in collaboration with Oxford University had an average efficacy of 70 percent.
Investor sentiment also received a boost following news that the Trump administration has officially commenced the transition process to U.S. President-elect Joe Biden, and Biden has chosen former U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen to be Treasury Secretary
Mainland Chinese markets, on the other hand, were lower by the afternoon: the Shanghai composite and the Shenzhen component both dipped 0.3%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was slightly higher. In afternoon trade, the Nikkei 225 jumped 2.5% while the Topix index advanced 2%. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 1.5%.
Oil prices added to last week’s gains as traders anticipated the vaccine news would spur a recovery in energy demand. The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, nudged down to 92.406 while the euro gained 0.11% on the day to $1.1853.