Asian stock markets advanced Thursday, AP reported. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 rose 1.94% to 23,655.64 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 1% to 28,310.10. The Shanghai Composite Index was 0.5% higher at 3,081.36. Seoul's Kospi rose 1.95% to 2,175.48 and Sydney's S&P-ASX 200 added 0.6% to 6,859.40. Southeast Asian markets also advanced while New Zealand was unchanged. Benchmark U.S. crude gained 48 cents to $60.09 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, used to price international oils, advanced 44 cents to $65.88 per barrel in London. It fell $2.83 the previous session to $65.44. Gold had a similar whipsaw day. It climbed as high as $1,604.20 per ounce before settling at $1,560.10. In currency trading, the dollar gained to 109.20 yen from Wednesday's 109.08 yen. The euro advanced to $1.1115 from $1.1105.
