Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading up in the early deals on Tuesday amid improved risk appetite, following the positive lead overnight from Wall Street and on expectations that Japan as well as other major economies will continue with their monetary easing. Meanwhile, Hong Kong and Chinese stocks opened higher following a rebound in US equities driven by gains in financial shares. Among the other Asian markets, Singapore, South Korea, and Malaysia are all in positive territory. Bucking the trend, Japan, Taiwan, and Indonesia are lower.
Hang Seng gained 186.28 points or 0.82% to 23,007.62, Shanghai Composite surged 1.33 points or 0.04% to 3,071.36, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI added 1.43 points or 0.09% to 1,683.03, Straits Times increased 0.08 points to 2,829.51, and KOSPI Index was up by 8.10 points or 0.40% to 2,040.45.
On the flip side, Nikkei 225 dipped 10.77 points or 0.06% to 16,726.72, Taiwan Weighted dropped 4.19 points or 0.05% to 9,105.98, and Jakarta Composite was down by 23.90 points or 0.44% to 5,346.87.