Mainland Chinese stocks surged on the day: the Shanghai composite climbed 1.72% to 3,473.07 while the Shenzhen component gained 1.895% to 14,470.68. The Hang Seng index in Hong Kong advanced 0.31% to 27,231.13.

Equity Group holdings Plc (EGH) has received regulatory approval to merge Equity Bank Congo (EBC) and BCDC to form a new bank. Going forward, the new bank will be known as, Equity Banque Commercial du...

Volume on US exchanges was 9.57 billion shares, compared with the 10.93 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.

The world's most popular cryptocurrency was last up 2.3 percent at $28,012.

There were no contracts concluded during today's trading session on the derivatives market.