Asia report: Shares close higher on back of positive Wall St

Asia shares closed higher on Monday on the back of a stabilised oil price and a higher US close on Friday, which helped drive sentiment in the region.

Japan's Nikkei closed 1.43% higher, while Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was up 1.94%. China’s Shanghai Composite rose 0.88% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng finish 2.33% higher. South Korea's KOSPI gained 1.83%.

Investors also took a positive view on China’s progress in controlling coronavirus outbreaks, as schools and businesses reopen.

“The positive (US) vibe spilled over into Asian markets overnight, which were also helped along by some economic data from China, which showed that its industrial profit fell by a lesser margin in May,” said Interactive Investor head of markets Richard Hunter.

“With production starting to resume, the decline in profit of 6.5% compared with 8.5% in April, there is some hope that China may also have turned a corner.”

Reporting by Frank Prenesti at Sharecast.com