Clinton pulls 5% lead over Trump in post-debate poll

​Washington: Hillary Clinton has pulled ahead of presidential rival Donald Trump in a new national poll out Friday, just days after her strong showing in the first televised debate.

Clinton has a 5 percentage point lead over Trump in the US presidential race, according to the latest Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll released on Friday, roughly the same advantage she has held all month.

The survey result showed little movement following Monday night's presidential debate, the first of three debates before the November 8 election.

According to a Fox News poll, the Democrat and former secretary of state bested her Republican rival by 3 percentage points. Although Clinton's lead is within the poll's 3 percentage point margin of error, it shows a bump for Clinton, who beat Trump by only one percentage point in the same poll two weeks ago.

Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson and Green Party candidate Jill Stein polled at eight and four percent respectively.

Clinton has mostly led Trump in the poll this year, and her level of support has been 4-5 percentage points higher than Trump's in each of the last four weeks.

In a separate poll that included alternative party candidates, Clinton led the field by 4 percentage points. Among likely voters, 42 percent supported Clinton, 38 percent supported Trump, 7 percent supported Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson and 3 percent supported Jill Stein of the Green Party.

Meanwhile a Detroit News-WDIV-TV four-way match-up conducted in the battleground state of Michigan found Clinton leading Trump by seven percentage points after the debate.

Monday's debate was the most watched presidential debate in US history, with an estimated 84 million people tuning in for the 90-minute exchange. Some 56 percent of Americans adults who watched the debate said Clinton won, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Wednesday.

According to a Nielsen tally, the debate was watched by 84 million people.

Voters appeared to be warming up to both candidates in Friday's poll. Some 48 percent of likely voters said they had an overall favourable view of Clinton, compared with 45 percent in the previous week, while 46 percent said they had a favourable view of Trump, up from 44 percent the week before.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll is conducted online in English in all 50 states. The poll included 2,501 people who were considered likely voters due to their registration status, voting history and stated intention to vote in the election. It has a credibility interval, a measure of accuracy, of 2 percentage points.

National opinion polls have differed this year in how they measure support for Clinton and Trump. Some polls, like Reuters/Ipsos, try to include only likely voters, while others include all registered voters. The Reuters/Ipsos tracking poll also gathers responses every day and reports results twice a week, so it often detects trends in sentiment before most other polls.

An average of major opinion polls aggregated by RealClearPolitics showed Clinton ahead of Trump by 2.9 percentage points on Friday, or 47.3 points to 44.4, slightly lower than the previous margin of 3 points on Wednesday, but well up from 0.9 point on September 19.

But American voters do not particularly like either candidate and many are still undecided. The Fox News poll found that 53 percent had an unfavourable opinion of Clinton, while 55 percent view Trump in a negative light.

The number of voters who find Trump honest and trustworthy, meanwhile, sank eight points since mid-September to 31 percent.

Clinton's numbers remain relatively unchanged: 35 percent now find her honest and trustworthy compared to 34 percent two weeks ago.

The Fox News poll interviewed 1,009 registered voters, and includes results among 911 likely voters. It was carried out Tuesday through Thursday.