Asian shares mostly gain after upbeat finish on Wall Street

BANGKOK (AP) — Shares in Asia were mostly higher Monday as gains carried over from a strong finish last week on Wall Street.

Tokyo, Hong Kong and Seoul advanced while Shanghai was closed for a holiday. Oil prices nudged higher and U.S. futures were nearly unchanged.

Analysts said a healthy report Friday on the U.S. jobs market eased worries over the recovery from the pandemic, though it also reinforced the likelihood of more interest rate hikes.

Shares in Hong Kong-traded Chinese companies rose after a report that regulators in Beijing have agreed to allow U.S. regulators full access to their audit of those that have shares listed in New York.

The Chinese financial magazine Caixin reported that China proposed revising rules that restrict sharing financial data of offshore-traded companies in a step toward resolving a long-running dispute that could result in more than 200 Chinese stocks being kicked off U.S. exchanges. It would remove a requirement that on-site inspections of overseas-traded Chinese companies mainly be conducted by Chinese regulators, Caixin said.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index climbed 1.2% to 22,313.83 and the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo gained 0.2% to 27,713.47. The Kospi in Seoul rose 0.3%, to 2,748.83. Sydney's S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.5% to 7,527.20 while India's Sensex jumped 2% to 60,455.88.

On Friday, the S&P 500 rose 0.3% to 4,545.86. The benchmark index eked out a slight gain for the week, its third straight advance amid lingering concerns about high inflation, higher interest rates from the Federal Reserve and the economic effects of the war in Ukraine.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.4 to 34,818.27, while the Nasdaq rose 0.3% to 14,261.50. The Russell 2000 gained 1% to 2,091.11.

The government report showing employers added 431,000 jobs...