Asian Stock Market rose and the euro extended gains on Monday as solid U.S. corporate earnings and surprisingly strong euro zone data offset growing scepticism that stress tests on European banks were not strict enough.
Only seven of 91 banks -- five small Spanish banks, Germany's state-rescued Hypo Real Estate and Greece's ATEbank -- failed the tests, for an overall capital shortfall of $3.5 billion euros.
The shortfall was much smaller than the 30-100 billion euros predicted by markets, although many European banks have already raised capital during the financial crisis.
The euro gained 0.2 percent in early Asian trade, after rising on Friday as the bank tests showed no nasty surprises and on strong euro zone data, including a record jump in German business sentiment in July.
"With the results of the stress tests, which had been the Live Stock Market big focus, out in the open, downward factors seem to have run their course for now, even though there's criticism that those tests might have been too easy," said Hiroichi Nishi, general manager of equity marketing at Nikko Cordial Securities.