Shares in Asia-Pacific were mixed in Monday trade, with multiple major markets in the region closed for holidays.
The Nikkei 225 in Japan rose 0.74% to close at 29,161.80 while the Topix index gained 0.29% to finish its trading day at 1,959.75. Official data released Monday showed Japan’s seasonally adjusted index for production rising 2.9% in April from the previous month.
South Korea’s Kospi closed fractionally higher at 3,252.13.
Over in Southeast Asia, Singapore’s Straits Times index slipped about 0.1% in afternoon trade. In India, the Nifty 50 fell 0.41% while the BSE Sensex declined 0.35%, as of 12:35 p.m. local time.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slipped 0.15%.
In the cryptocurrency space, bitcoin jumped to trade at $39,593.87 as of 3:06 a.m. ET Monday, according to data from Coindesk. Those gains came after Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the electric vehicle maker will resume bitcoin transactions once it confirms ” reasonable (~50%) clean energy usage by miners with positive future trend.”
Markets in Australia, mainland China and Hong Kong were closed on Monday for holidays.
Asian Markets Currencies and oil
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 90.526 following a recent climb past the 90.3 level.
The Japanese yen traded at 109.65 per dollar, weaker than levels below 109.5 seen against the greenback last week. The Australian dollar changed hands at $0.7708 after falling from above $0.774 late last week.
Oil prices rose in the afternoon of Asia trading hours, with international benchmark Brent crude futures up 0.85% to $73.31 per barrel. U.S. crude futures gained 0.75% to $71.44 per barrel.
