Asian stocks up as U.S.’ passes infrastructure bill

Asia Pacific stocks largely rose during the trading session on Wednesday morning. The gains were sustained but modest, as investors are still weighing the effect of the pandemic and the central bank’s asset tapering on the health of the world economy.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.56% by 9:32 PM ET (1:32 AM GMT) while South Korea’s KOSPI dropped 0.33%.

In Australia, the ASX 200 gained 0.62%, while the Westpac consumer sentiment index fell 4.4% in August in comparison with the 1.5% growth recorded in July 2020.

Over in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index fell 0.39%. In China, the Shanghai Composite climbed 0.14% while the Shenzhen Component increased 0.78%.

This trend of rising stocks is not restricted to Asia alone but spread globally after the U.S. Senate passed a $1 trillion infrastructure plan, which will now be submitted to the House of Representatives for a vote.