All the Asian equity benchmarks barring Jakarta Composite are trading higher in the early deals on Tuesday despite a weak lead from Wall Street where stocks ended lower overnight amid geopolitical worries. However, the mood is quite cautious with investors watching the situation in Ukraine and the Middle East, and looking ahead to some crucial economic data, due later this week. The Japanese stocks rose, with trading resuming after a holiday, as the market attempted to get a handle on regional and broader political events. In the economy news, Japan will release final May figures for its leading and coincident indexes later in the day. Little change is expected from the preliminary readings that suggested scores of 105.7 and 111.1, respectively. Among other markets in the Asia-Pacific region, Hong Kong, Shanghai, South Korea and Taiwan are trading higher. Singapore and Malaysia are up marginally, while Indonesia is slightly weak.
Nikkei 225 spurted by 152.61 points or 1.00% to 15,368.32, Hang Seng gained 280.32 points or 1.20% to 23,667.46, KOSPI Index increased by 7.24 points or 0.36% to 2,025.74, Straits Times strengthened 0.91 points or 0.03% to 3,315.18, Shanghai Composite soared 19.82 points or 0.96% to 2,074.30, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI improved 1.09 points or 0.06% to 1,869.73 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 33.69 points or 0.36% to 9,474.66.
On the flip side, Jakarta Composite was down by 16.16 points or 0.32% to 5,110.96.