Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading up in the early deals on Tuesday, as markets digested data out of Japan and South Korea, amid heightened expectations the US Federal Reserve will raise interest rates as soon as next month. Japan's industrial output in April saw a 0.3% increase from March, beating expectations for a 1.5% fall. And the country’s April household spending fell 0.4% year-on-year, the second month of declines, but still came in better than expected. China stocks jumped to a three-week high with financials leading a broad rally as investors bet that MSCI will add mainland shares to its index for the first time next month. Meanwhile, Japanese stocks rose on thin volume as exporters jumped after the yen pared gains and comments from the nation’s finance minister increased confidence the government will delay a planned sales tax hike. Among the other Asian markets, Singapore, Hong Kong, and South Korea are up with modest gains. Bucking the trend, Indonesia, Malaysia and Taiwan are in negative territory.
Nikkei 225 added 101.72 points or 0.60% to 17,169.74, Hang Seng spurt 256.18 points or 1.24% to 20,885.57, Shanghai Composite increased 68.70 points or 2.43% to 2,891.15, Straits Times added 27.80 points or 0.99% to 2,824.55, and KOSPI Index was up by 10.60 points or 0.54% to 1,977.73.
On the flip side, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI dropped 3.56 points or 0.22% to 1,626.31, Taiwan Weighted declined 36.27 points or 0.42% to 8,499.60, and Jakarta Composite was down by 15.54 points or 0.32% to 4,820.49.