Asian stocks at decade highs on higher oil, global equity surge

The stocks on the Asian bourses extended its last week’s bullish streak and refreshed fresh 10-year highs, taking the positive lead from its Wall Street counterpart. Meanwhile, strengthening oil prices amid ongoing Iraq tensions continue to boost the energy and resource stocks on the indices. Escalating tensions between the Iraqi government and Kurdish forces threatened supply.

Japan's Nikkei 225 climbed for a ninth straight day and went on to hit fresh 21-year highs at 21,354, as the Yen returns to losses against its American counterpart ahead of the Japanese election scheduled later this week.

The Asian markets also found some support from dismal US inflation figures, which cast doubts over the Fed rate hike outlook this year, offering some cheer to the corporate world. Meanwhile, the region’s indices also received fresh impetus from better Chinese inflation readings.

 Among other indices, Australia’s ASX 200 index rallies +0.65% to 5,851, China A50 rises +0.64% to 12,354 and Hong Kong’s Hang Sang is up 1% near 28,750 levels. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan advanced for a fifth day running to be up 0.3%.