Asian markets traded mostly higher today. So Japan's Nikkei-225 index climbed 1.8 percent; China's Shanghai Composite index advanced 1.5 percent and South Korea's Kospi index ended 1 percent higher; Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 1.1 percent but Singapore's Straits Times index lost 0.5 percent, in intra-day trade.

In Europe, London's FTSE-100 had gained 0.4 percent; France's CAC-40 had added 0.7 percent and Germany's DAX had moved up 0.1 percent, in intra-day trade.