A good start to the holiday shopping season in the US last week cheered up stock markets across the Asia Pacific region.

Hong Kong and South Korean shares led the gains. The Tokyo market was boosted by media reports that China’s sovereign wealth fund may start buying Japanese shares. Australian shares responded positively to the election victory of the opposition Labor party led by Kevin Rudd. By late afternoon in Tokyo, the MSCI Asia-Pacific index was up 3.3 per cent for the day though still around 10 per cent lower than its peak earlier in the month.