SINGAPORE — Shares in Asia-Pacific mostly rose in Tuesday trade as Japanese stocks led gains regionally, with investors reacting to the release of Chinese factory activity data for November.

Japan’s Nikkei 225The Topix index rose 1.41% while it gained 1.26%.

Stocks in China were up, as was the Shanghai compositeThe increase in the Shenzhen component1.182% increase Hong Kong Hang Seng indexThe wider area was behind it, falling 0.37%

China’s Official Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index November was 50.1. Analysts had expected a reading of 49.6. This was higher than what Reuters polled.

Below 50 PMI levels signify contraction. Above that, they indicate expansion. PMI readings can be interpreted as sequential, and indicate month-to-month growth or contraction.

South Korea KospiThe situation was not significantly different during the S&P/ASX 200 jumped 1.14%.

MSCI’s Asia-Pacific share index outside Japan was 0.4% more.

The region’s investors also kept an eye on developments in relation to the omicron version. World Health Organization said is likely to spread further and poses a “very high” global risk.

The major Wall Street indexes rose overnight after U.S. President Joe Biden declared that there is no immediate need to lock down Covid Omicron. The S&P 500 gained 1.32% to 4,655.27 while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite surged 1.88% to 15,782.83. Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 236.60 points, to 35.135.94.

The morning Asia trading hour saw oil prices rise, as did international benchmarks. Brent crude futuresBarrel price: $74.18 to 1.01% U.S. crude futuresBarrel price increased 1.1% to $70.72

It U.S. dollar indexAfter rising to 96.4 in recent months,, which measures the greenback’s performance against a basket of peers, stood at 96.196.

It Japanese yenThe dollar traded at 113.75, which was lower than the 113.4 levels seen yesterday against the greenback. The Australian dollarIt was $0.7145. This is despite the fact that it still hasn’t recovered from last week’s plunge of over $0.725.