In Asia today, the Hang Seng closed the morning up 370.65 points at 16,235.87, while the Nikkei was recently up 331.99 pointd at 15,453.14.
New York's main oil contract, light sweet crude for delivery in August, was at $73.74, up 22 cents from $73.52 in late trades in the US, where the price had jumped $1.33.
Early broker notes:
XANSA CUT TO 'UNDERWEIGHT' VS 'OVERWEIGHT' AT JP MORGAN
EASYJET CUT TO 'UNDERWEIGHT' VS 'NEUTRAL' AT HSBC
SEVERN TRENT UPGRADED TO 'NEUTRAL' VS 'REDUCE' AT UBS