Japan’s Nikkei was a shade higher while Australian shares rose 0.6% and South Korea’s KOSPI added 0.5%. Chinese shares, however, were weaker with the bluechip CSI300 index down about 1% after a strong rally last week.

The Xe-100 is an 80 MWe (scalable to a 320 MWe four-pack) high-temperature gas cooled reactor which uses TRISO (tristructural isotropic) particle fuel.

"In the medium and long term, JGC Corporation will work with Fluor to secure and execute SMR EPC projects on a global basis, and intends to seek opportunities in integrating SMRs with renewable energy, as well as with hydrogen production and seawater desalination," JGC said.

Brent rose 90 cents, or 1.5%, to $63.05 a barrel. WTI rose 98 cents, or 1.7%, to $59.63.

Rosatom offers integrated clean energy solutions across the nuclear supply chain and beyond.

Iranian crude production has risen in recent months, hitting 2.14 million b/d in February, a 190,000 b/d increase from a 33-year low of 1.95 million b/d in August.

The United Arab Emirates and the US announced their joint commitment to tackle the climate challenge in a joint statement that stresses the importance and urgency of raising global climate ambition.

European traders returned from a long weekend to push the STOXX 600 up 0.8% to 435.7 points. It has climbed more than 60% from last year’s lows and surpassed its previous all-time high of 433.90 points in February 2020.

The state-owned Indian power utility NTPC has registered a +8.2% increase in electricity production in 2020/21 reaching 314 TWh (April 2020 to March 2021).

The UAE Sunday announced $3 billion investment in Iraq in a fresh bid to strengthen the economic and investment relations between the two fraternal nations.