In Asia today, the Hang Seng closed the morning up 90.25 points at 19,034.44, while the Nikkei was recently up 88.69 points at 16,354.45.
New York Mercantile Exchange's main oil contract, light sweet crude for January delivery, was up 13 cents at $62.56 a barrel from $64.43 in late trading in the US overnight.