Japan’s Nikkei share index hit a fresh 15-year high on Monday helped by progress made in Greece’s debt negotiations over the weekend. Greece promised to crack down on tax evasion and other reforms to secure an extension to its bailout.
Tokyo’s benchmark Nikkei 225 closed up 0.73% at 18,466.92. Following a break over the Lunar New Year, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index ended up just 4.68 points at 24,836.76.
Elsewhere in China, markets remained closed for the holiday period.
Analysts said the markets might have welcomed Friday’s news from the debt talks, but that a Greek exit from the eurozone was still a possibility. “If you actually look at the deal, Greece got nothing and Germany got everything,” said Melbourne-based IG market strategist Evan Lucas. “And we are now edging towards a Greek exit from the economic and monetary union. “Prime Minister Alexis Tspiras will now have to sell the ‘unsellable’ deal considering his party came to power on the mandate of winding back austerity,” Mr Lucas said.
In Australia, the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index closed up 0.45% at 5,908.00 as investors moved on from weak earnings reports from energy and resource firms. In Korea, the Kospi share index ended the day up 0.35% at 1,968.39.
via BBC