Nikkei nears 20K for the first time since Nov 2015

The combination of oil led risk-on and early Yen weakness pushed the Japan’s benchmark equity index Nikkei to 19,998.5; its highest level since November 2015.

Nikkei was last seen trading largely unchanged on the day around 19,872 levels. The USD / JPY pair rose to a high of 113.79 in the overnight trade as the gains in the cyber security stocks and energy shares pushed major US indices higher.

However, the USD/JPY pair trimmed gains to trade around 113.45 levels, possibly due to Trump's Russia leak scandal. The recovery in the Yen seems to have weighed over the Nikkei index.

Other Asian indices are trading in the red this Tuesday morning, despite moderate gains in the oil benchmarks. Hang Seng is down 106 points and Shanghai Composite has dropped 22 points. Australian shares are trading flat lined.