Key Asian markets ended higher, today, taking a positive lead from US markets after a set of strong US corporate earnings. So Japan's Nikkei-225 index jumped 1.8 per cent; Hong Kong's Hang Seng index gained 1.5 per cent;  China's Shanghai Composite index rose 0.4 per cent; South Korea's Kospi index advanced 0.9 per cent; while Singapore's Straits Times index was up 0.3 per cent.

In Europe, markets are headed for their best weekly performance in seven months, as a bright start to the earnings season helped ease investor concerns about higher inflation. So London's FTSE-100 had gained 0.3 percent; France's CAC-40 rose 0.5 and Germany's DAX had added 0.3 percent, in the intra-day trade.