Cautious hopes of Hillary Clinton win against Donald Trump lift most stock markets in Asia
Most Asian stock markets rose today as Americans prepared to head to the polls and investors remained cautiously optimistic that Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton will secure the White House.
Modest upswings in Asian shares pushed the MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific-based stock outside of Japan up 0.3 per cent.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.3 per cent, while China's CSI Index added 0.5 per cent. Japan's Nikkei shed earlier gains to trade 0.2 per cent lower, weighed down by the yen's rise and following losses yesterday.
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Stock markets across the world have been buoyed since the FBI announced on Sunday it had found no evidence that criminal charges should be brought against Clinton during its latest investigation into her emails during her time as secretary of state.
European shares rallied yesterday, with the pan-European STOXX 600 closing up 1.5 per cent and the FTSE 100 rallying to its biggest one-day rise since 2 September. The FTSE was sent 1.7 per cent higher to 6,806.90 points.
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Across the pond, the US Dow surged more than 350 points in the best day since March.
A poll by the Economist and YouGov released this morning showed Clinton ahead of her Republican rival Donald Trump by four percentage points. The survey of 3,677 likely voters was conducted from Friday to Monday and showed Clinton had 45 per cent of voters' support, while billionaire tycoon-turned-politician Trump trailed slightly behind with 41 per cent in a four-way race.