asian markets were broadly higher thursday after an overnight gain in oil prices, and a perceived victory by hillary clinton in the third and final u.s. presidential debate . hong kong<u+2019>s hang seng index closed up 0.3% and australia<u+2019>s s&p/asx 200 added 0.1%. <u+201c>asia markets are quietly positive <u+2026> the strong oil price is supporting the energy sector,<u+201d> said margaret yang, market analyst at cmc markets. brent, the global benchmark, fell 0.9% in asia trade to $52.22 on profit-taking, after rising 1.9% overnight. japan<u+2019>s nikkei closed at its highest level in six months, driven higher by a weaker yen and a view that democratic nominee clinton prevailed in her debate with republican rival donald trump, which played out thursday morning tokyo time. the nikkei ended up 1.4% at 17235.50, its highest level since april 27. the yen was down 0.2%, according to thomson reuters. mr. trump<u+2019>s policies are widely seen as unfriendly to asian economies and markets. oil stocks were among the biggest gainers in the region. in hong kong, chinese offshore oil producer cnooc gained 2.1% and petrochina added 3%. taiwan<u+2019>s taiex rose 0.4%, led by energy and petrochemical stocks. formosa petrochemical and formosa plastics climbed 1.9% and 3.4%, respectively. in australia, woodside petroleum was up about 0.9% and bhp billiton was up 1.7%. despite the strength in energy stocks, shares in australia were capped after data on thursday showed a surprise drop in the number of people employed. the number of australians employed fell for the second consecutive month in september, registering a decline of 9,800, compared with an expected 15,000 rise. this followed a revised fall in employment of 8,600 in august, which was originally reported as a 3,900 decline. <u+201c>the australian jobs number was a shock this morning,<u+201d> said christoffer moltke-leth, director of global sales trading at saxo capital markets in singapore. in china, the shanghai composite index slipped 0.01%, following recent gains built on strong economic data from china this week. later in the global day, investors will be looking to the ecb meeting for trading cues. the central bank is widely expected to leave its policies unchanged, confirming it will continue to buy <u+20ac>80 billion ($88 billion) a month of mainly government bonds until at least march. the market will be looking for signals about what will happen after that point. <u+201c>we<u+2026>think there will be a dovish tone from the ecb,<u+201d> said frank benzimra, head of asia equity strategy at soci<u+00e9>t<u+00e9> g<u+00e9>n<u+00e9>rale . the euro fell to a multiweek low against the dollar ahead of the ecb meeting. the euro is at risk of weakening past its post-brexit level of 1.0912 to the dollar if ecb chief mario draghi hints at extra easing, said takuya kawabata, analyst at gaitame.com research institute. <u+2014>john wu, hiroyuki kachi, kosaku narioka, james glynn, ese erheriene and kenan machado contributed to this article. write to willa plank at willa.plank@wsj.com
asian shares get boost from oil, clinton - wsj
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