It’s been a good year on Asian markets in 2017, with many stock indexes in the region now at multi-year highs.

The global economy has continued to strengthen in recent months, which has helped to drive gains in developed markets across Japan, Hong Kong and Australia.

Those gains followed a flood of foreign capital into Asian emerging markets in the first half of the year, which pushed stocks in India and South Korea to new record highs.

Perhaps not surprisingly then, the MSCI Asia Pacific Index is currently tracking towards an all-time high, as BloombergTV’s Haidi Lun pointed out on Twitter:

Gains in Asian markets today are being led by Japan’s export-focused Nikkei index, which at one point was more than 2% higher for the session.

Japanese stocks have rocketed up by around 20% since the start of September, amid recent weakness in the Yen as Japan’s central bank reaffirmed it would maintain the current levels of monetary stimulus.

Shares on Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index has also risen strongly in recent months, gaining more than 8% since the start of August.

Even the Australian market — which under-performed its developed market peers for most of the year — has broken higher from its recent trading range to push above 6,000 points for the first time since January 2008.

The ASX200 is joining in the buoyant mood across Asian markets today. A short time ago, it was up more than 0.4% for the day with gains across the major sectors.

In other Asian markets today, mainland Chinese stocks on the Shanghai stock exchange are trading flat, while a short time ago South Korea’s KOSPI index was up by 0.2%. India’s stock exchange will open at 2:45pm AEST.

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