Asian Stock Markets Start 2021 Strong

Ever since Joe Biden's win, Asian stock markets have rallied. But even before the U.S. elections, indices on the continent had taken new coronavirus outbreaks - for example in Japan or South Korea - in stride. Talk of a new lockdown in Tokyo, however, had the Nikkei losing when trading commenced on Monday.

Strong gains since the summer have mirrored the situation in the U.S. where infections continued to spread after a short slowdown, but stock markets did not reacted to the virus reprise in the same way they did when the virus emerged in early 2020.

Hong Kong, which battled a spike in cases in July and is also embroiled in a fight for its independence with China, saw markets recover the least as a result. In China, where case numbers have remained most stable, markets have been back above January levels since early July but lagged behind the Kospi's and the Nikkei's gains lately.