HONG KONG: Asian markets rose for a third straight day Wednesday, with Tokyo hitting a more than 18-year high, on confidence Greece will finally hammer out a bailout reform deal with its creditors, averting a default.
With expectations high that a last-minute agreement will be reached, the euro resumed its downward spiral against the dollar as traders turned their attention to a possible US rate hike and European monetary easing.
Tokyo climbed 0.56 percent to its highest level since late 1996, Hong Kong added 0.23 percent, Shanghai gained 0.61 percent, Sydney put on 0.15 percent and Seoul edged higher.
Global equity markets are on a run this week after Greece at the weekend submitted proposals for overhauling its bailout terms that were welcomed by its creditors.
Eurozone finance ministers will meet Wednesday to work on details of the new plan, before a full European Union summit is held a day after.
However, Greece’s leaders — elected on an anti-austerity platform cautioned they had to get any agreement through the country’s parliament, with some members of the ruling party claiming red lines on some issues such as tax had been crossed.
Greece has to unlock billions of euros in aid before a June 30 deadline to repay an International Monetary Fund debt. It if fails it will default, with some warnings it could be ejected from the EU.
“The markets appear to have taken the view” that an agreement in Greece “is a foregone conclusion,” Ric Spooner, chief market analyst in Sydney at CMC Markets, told Bloomberg News.
“Markets have now focused back on what they were focusing on prior to real concerns developing about Greece and that is the adjustment for the potential for higher interest rates.”
On Wall Street the Dow added 0.13 percent, the S&P 500 nudged up 0.06 percent and the Nasdaq put on 0.12 percent to end at another record for a second day in a row.
And in Europe, Athens rose more than six percent, adding to a nine percent gain Monday.
There were also advances in Paris, Frankfurt, London, Lisbon, Rome and Madrid.
