A half-a-trillion-dollar Franco-German plan to support the European Union economy also lifted confidence, while Australian investors brushed off news that China had imposed massive tariffs on barley imported from the country.
But the big news Monday was US biotech firm Moderna reporting"positive interim" results in early testing of a vaccine candidate, with some analysts suggesting that if all goes well it could be in use by the end of the year. Seoul, Manila, Jakarta and Taipei were more than one per cent higher. There were also gains in Wellington, Kuala Lumpur and Shanghai.
Traders were also taking heart from a proposal by France and Germany for a 500 billion euro fund to finance the recovery of the European Union economy, with the cash going to"worst-hit sectors and regions" in the struggling bloc.The upbeat mood also saw higher-yielding, riskier currencies rise against the dollar, with the Australian and New Zealand dollars both up more than one per cent, while the South Korean won was up 0.7 per cent.