Asian Markets Soar Amid US Senate Vote To Remove Debt Ceiling

Asian markets rose on Friday, following Wall Street's rally, amid rising expectations that the US Federal Reserve will pause interest rate hikes in June.

The Philadelphia Federal Reserve President Patrick Harker stated that US central bankers should not raise interest rates at their next meeting, indicating that the Fed is likely to keep rates steady.

Meanwhile, the US Senate is set to vote on Thursday night on a bill to suspend the US government's $31.4 trillion debt ceiling, which was passed by the House the day before.

Overnight data showed that the number of Americans filing new unemployment claims increased slightly last week, and private employers hired more workers than expected in May, indicating that the labour market remains tight.

The focus of investors now shifts to the Labour Department's May unemployment report, which is due on Friday.

The MSCI world equity index, which tracks stocks in nearly 50 countries, increased by 1.1%.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific stocks outside of Japan rose 1.13%.

The Nikkei 225 in Japan rose 0.63% to 31,339.65, while the Kospi in South Korea rose 0.72% to 2,587.74.

The Hang Seng index in Hong Kong increased by 2.33%. The Shanghai Composite increased by 0.24%, while the Shenzhen Component fell by 0.67%.

The S&P/ASX 200 index in Australia increased by 0.57%.

The SGX Nifty was up 64 points, or 0.34%, at 18,627.5.