VOA NEWS


 

Asian markets were higher Thursday despite a chaotic day on Japan’s benchmark Nikkei index.

Trading was halted early Thursday on the world’s third-largest stock market due to a glitch in its electronic trading system. The Japan Exchange Group, which operates the Nikkei, said the malfunction was due to a hardware failure in the system’s backup device.

The company said it hopes to have the problem fixed and the Nikkei back up and running again Friday.

Meanwhile, the S&P/ASX index in Sydney was up 0.9%, and Taipei's TSEC index was up 0.3%. Mumbai’s Sensex was up 1.5% in late afternoon trading.

The indices in Seoul, Hong Kong and Shanghai were closed due to national holidays in South Korea and mainland China.

In commodities trading, gold was selling at $1,900.70 per ounce, up 0.2%. U.S. crude oil was selling at $39.94 an barrel, down 0.7%, and Brent crude oil was selling at $40.91 per barrel, down 0.1%.

All three major U.S. indices were trending positively in futures trading.