Asian markets mostly higher after Wall Street gains

A Chinese investor monitors stock prices at a brokerage house in Beijing, Monday, Feb. 12, 2018. Asian stock markets are mostly higher after Wall Street gained following a week of history-making losses. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
A Chinese investor monitors stock prices at a brokerage house in Beijing, Monday, Feb. 12, 2018. Asian stock markets are mostly higher after Wall Street gained following a week of history-making losses. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

BEIJING (AP) - Asian markets rose Monday after Wall Street gained following a turbulent week.

KEEPING SCORE: The Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.4 percent to 3,141.58 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 0.5 percent to 29,656.44. Japanese markets were closed for a holiday. Seoul's Kospi advanced 1.2 percent to 2,391.68 while Sydney's S&P-ASX 200 shed 0.2 percent to 5,823.60. India's Sensex gained 0.5 percent to 34,182.41 and benchmarks in Taiwan, Singapore and Bangkok also advanced. New Zealand and Manila declined.

WALL STREET: A late rally reversed steep losses Friday and lifted the Dow Jones industrial average more than 300 points. The Dow gained 1.4 percent to 24,190.90. The Standard & Poor's 500 rose 1.5 percent to 2,619.55. The Nasdaq composite added 1.4 percent, to 6,874.49. For the week, the three indexes finished down more than 5 percent. They're also now all in the red for the year.

ANALYST'S TAKE: "Higher volatility will likely persist for a little while," said Gaurav Saroliya of Oxford Economics in a report. "The threat to valuation multiples is unlikely to remain as high as it seemed last week. The current equity market turmoil is unlikely to dent continued strong global economic growth. We still see 2018 as the best post-financial crisis year."

U.S. BUDGET BATTLE: Legislators agreed on a $400 billion budget measure after conflicts over immigration and other issues led to the second temporary government shutdown in three weeks. The measure approved Friday increases military spending and provides $89 billion for disaster relief.

WEEK AHEAD: Taiwan reports quarterly economic growth on Tuesday. Wednesday brings economic growth from Japan and U.S. inflation and retail sales. The United States reports factory output Thursday.

ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude gained 61 cents to $59.81 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract plunged $1.95 on Friday to close at $59.20. Brent crude, used to price international oils, advanced 51 cents to $63.30 in London. It fell $1.98 the previous session.

CURRENCY: The dollar declined to 108.68 yen from Friday's 108.79 yen. The euro gained to $1.2282 from $1.2251.

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