Asian shares rebound from MH17 losses

File photo: Traders work on the floor of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. (AFP/Anthony Wallace)

HONG KONG: Asian markets took a lead from Wall Street and rebounded on Monday from last week's losses that were fuelled by the downing of a Malaysian airliner in Ukraine.

Hong Kong added 0.10 per cent, Shanghai was flat, Sydney edged up 0.12 per cent and Seoul was 0.47 per cent higher.

Tokyo was closed for a public holiday.

With few catalysts to drive business, investors took the opportunity to pick up cheap shares after a broad sell-off on Friday in response to the Malaysia Airlines plane crash, which fanned already high tensions in battle-wracked Ukraine.

With the United States accusing Moscow of involvement in the downing of MH17, Russian President Vladimir Putin has promised to cooperate in an investigation into the tragedy, which took almost 300 lives Thursday.

Also dragging on sentiment was news of Israel's ground offensive in Gaza, fuelling concerns about the tinderbox region.

In New York on Friday the three main indexes bounced back from the previous day's falls, with bargain-buying backed up by strong earnings from Google.

The Dow rose 0.73 per cent, the S&P 500 jumped 1.03 per cent and the Nasdaq rallied 1.57 per cent.

However, despite the equity advances investors were still buying into the lower-risk yen as a hedge against political uncertainty.

The dollar bought 101.30 yen against 101.36 yen on Friday in New York, while the euro fetched 137.06 yen compared with 137.12 yen.

The single currency was also at $1.3531 compared with $1.3525.

On oil markets, US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for August delivery was down 23 cents at $102.90 in mid-morning trade, and Brent crude for September fell 13 cents to $107.11.

Gold prices dipped to $1,307.50 by 0110 GMT compared with $1,312.33 late Friday.