Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading higher in the early deals on Tuesday due to a fresh promise of stimulus from Beijing, which helped to counter pessimism over weak trade data from China for April. Though, some gains were capped on lackluster cues overnight from Wall Street and European markets. Meanwhile, Japan's Nikkei share average rose to a 1-1/2-week high after the yen weakened, but investors remained careful before major companies release full-year earnings and forecasts. Among the other Asian markets, South Korea, Taiwan, Shanghai, and Malaysia are up with modest gains. Bucking the trend, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Indonesia are in negative territory.
Nikkei 225 surged 324.56 points or 2.00% to 16,540.59, KOSPI Index jumped 8.25 points or 0.42% to 1,976.06, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI added 1.85 points or 0.11% to 1,634.04, Taiwan Weighted increased 22.41 points or 0.28% to 8,154.24, and Shanghai Composite was up by 5.47 points or 0.19% to 2,837.58.
On the flip side, Hang Seng declined 10.65 points or 0.05% to 20,146.16, Straits Times dropped 6.33 points or 0.23% to 2,759.73, and Jakarta Composite was down by 0.83 points or 0.02% to 4,748.48.