The leading Asian stock exchanges started the week's second-to-last trading day on the upswing after the US President Donald Trump announced that they had made "significant progress" in the tariff negotiations with Japan.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 had risen by 0.9 percent at lunchtime, while the broader Topix index grew by 0.8.
In Hong Kong, it was even more cheerful when the Hang Seng index rose by 1.2 percent.
Relatively upbeat was also the composite index in Shanghai and Shenzhen, which added 0.2 and 0.6 percent, respectively.
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