Most Asian stock markets gain following positive Wall Street performance overnight

Most Asian stock market indices were trading higher on Wednesday (22 February) with the Shanghai Composite up 0.08% at 3,255.82 as of 5.36am GMT, following positive Wall Street performance overnight.

All major American indices closed higher on Tuesday in the wake of reports of solid earnings by companies in the world's biggest economy, giving a major boost to market sentiments.

Ric Spooner, chief market analyst at CMC Markets, was cited by Reuters as saying: "US stock markets are currently a great example of the old trading adage that the trend is your friend."

Markets also took positive cues from a strong performance in European equities, following robust factory activity data from Germany and France.

Indices in the region were trading as follows at 5:43am GMT:

On 21 February, the FTSE 100 closed 0.34% lower at 7,274.83 while the S&P 500 index closed 0.60% higher at 2,365.38.

Among commodities, oil prices were trading in the green. According to CNBC, this follows Opec Secretary General Mohammad Barkindo saying at an industry conference in London that data showed Opec members had cut back on crude output in January. He had also added that inventories would decline further this year.

As of 12.37am EST, WTI crude oil was up 0.33% at $54.51 (£43.59) a barrel, while Brent crude was trading 0.41% higher at $56.89 a barrel.