Equities markets higher as oil prices drop

Asia Pacific region equities markets were higher on Tuesday. In Australia, the Sydney Ordinaries added 1.51 percent to 5,997.6, while the S&P/ASX300 closed at 6,013.4, a gain of 97.6 points on the session. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index added 0.97 percent to 10,002.7. India’s Sensex partially bounced back from Monday’s losses to gain 1.6 percent to 12,624.58, while the Straits Times index in Singapore was up 1.6 percent to 3,288.36. The Tokyo markets also saw gains after significant declines on Monday. The Nikkei 225 added 1.3 percent to 17,244.05, while the Topix index also gained 1.3 percent, to close at 1,704.32.

The FTSE Eurofirst 300 closed 0.91 percent higher to 1,534.90, while in Paris the CAC-40 gained 1.18 percent to 5,711.91 and the Xetra Dax was up 1.56 percent to 7,045.56 in Frankfurt. In London the FTSE 100 was 0.8 percent higher 6,366.1, while the FTSE 250 gained 1.07 percent to 11,885.5 on the session.

Wall Street was higher at mid-session. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.96 percent to 12,501.12, a gain of 118.82 points after having been up as much as 131 at one point in the session. The Nasdaq Composite had added 1.29 percent to 2,453.5, and the S&P 500 gained 0.96 percent to 1,437.45.

The price of crude oil was significantly lower after it looked as if there might be a diplomatic solution to the current standoff between the UK and Iran over 15 British sailors held by Iran. Metals prices, however were up on the session.

Among currencies, the Japanese yen and the Swiss franc both weakened as investors looked for more risk, while both the euro and sterling held steady against the US dollar.

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