Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading higher in the deals on Tuesday following a soft lead from Wall Street and on recent disappointing data out of China. Meanwhile, the Japanese stock market rallied sharply as a stronger dollar lifted sentiment and triggered some hectic buying across the board. On the economic front, Japan's manufacturing sector growth was revised to show slower increase in October. The Markit/JMMA manufacturing purchasing managers' index, or PMI, was revised to 52.4 from 52.8 in October. This is more than the 51.7 score in September. The latest reading was highest since March and also marked the fifth consecutive month of expansion. Among other markets in the Asia-Pacific region, Malaysia, Indonesia, Shanghai and Singapore are down marginally, while South Korea is notably lower. Hong Kong and Taiwan are trading modestly higher.
KOSPI Index slipped 18.80 points or 0.96% to 1,934.17, Straits Times decreased by 9.55 points or 0.29% to 3,281.29, Jakarta Composite dipped 4.07 points or 0.08% to 5,081.44, Shanghai Composite contracted by 0.02 points to 2,430.01 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 7.52 points or 0.41% to 1,845.82.
On the flip side, Nikkei 225 surged by 525.99 points or 3.20% to 16,939.75, Hang Seng soared 296.02 points or 1.25% to 23,998.06 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 1.98 points or 0.02% to 9,006.84.