Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading up in the early deals on Tuesday, as jittery investors took cues from gains on Wall Street and a rebound in oil prices, but volatility remains high ahead of US Federal Reserve and Bank of Japan policy meetings. The Fed is widely expected to announce its first interest rate increase in nearly a decade. Meanwhile, the Japanese market is in negative territory, extending losses from the previous session, as investors treaded cautiously ahead of the closely-watched US Federal Reserve meeting ending Wednesday. Among the other Asian markets, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, Shanghai, South Korea and Taiwan are marginally higher. Bucking the trend, Malaysia is marginally lower.
Hang Seng gained 96.23 points or 0.45% to 21,406.08, Taiwan Weighted surged 54.69 points or 0.68% to 8,094.85, KOSPI Index increased 0.48 points or 0.02% to 1,928.30, Shanghai Composite added 2.99 points or 0.09% to 3,523.66, Jakarta Composite spurt 4.78 points or 0.11% to 4,378.97, and Straits Times was up by 8.97 points or 0.32% to 2,824.01.
On the flip side, Nikkei 225 dropped 235.16 points or 1.25% to 18,648.26, and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 0.26 points or 0.02% to 1,629.70.