Asian stocks higher; Malaysian markets reopen after elections

Asian markets were mostly higher on Monday, despite oil prices remained lower after touching multi-year highs last week and as Malaysia stocks bounced following a negative open.

The FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI started this week almost 2 percent down in response to a widely unexpected result in the country’s general election. However, the index was able to recover to trade about half a percent as the new political context is progressively being digested.

Analysts linked market stabilization to the appointment of three ministers. New prime minister Mahathir Mohamad named them over the weekend as he continued to build his cabinet.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 ended 0.53 percent higher, followed by the broader Topix with a 0.61 gain. The real estate sector was up more than 3 percent this session.

South Korea’s Kospi benchmark eased 0.06 percent, erasing gains as heavyweight Samsung Electronics dropped more than two and a half percent and pushed the index lower.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 closed 0.31 percent into green territory, supported in energy and materials stocks.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index was trading 1.32 percent higher by the time of this writing, while mainland Shanghai composite and Shenzhen composite were up 0.34 and 0.30 percent.

Oil prices continued to be strong on the back of President Donald Trump’s pull out from the Iran nuclear deal and on prospects of fresh economic sanctions against the muslim nation.

Wall Street top three indexes closed higher last week, with the Dow Jones adding 2.3 percent, the S&P 500 growing 2.4 percent and the Nasdaq composite up 2.7 percent.

Trade relation between the US and China is again monitored by market participants as President Trump said in one of his Sunday tweets he is working with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to put telecom equipment maker ZTE “back into business, fast.”

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