Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading up in the early deals on Tuesday as investors looked ahead to minutes from the US Federal Reserve's latest meeting and Wall Street prepared to reopen after a three-day weekend. Meanwhile, Japanese stocks edged up as the yen eased back against the dollar, although trading volumes were low as a holiday in the United States left investors short of the usual leads. Among the other Asian markets, South Korea, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Indonesia are all higher. Bucking the trend, Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan are edging lower.
Nikkei 225 rose 129.99 points or 0.68% to 19,381.07, Hang Seng strengthen 35.23 points or 0.15% to 24,181.31, KOSPI Index added 22.87 points or 1.10% to 2,107.26, Shanghai Composite gained 8.44 points or 0.26% to 3,248.40 and Jakarta Composite was up by 9.66 points or 0.18% to 5,368.95.
On the flips side, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI dropped 3.98 points or 0.23% to 1,708.60, Straits Times declined 3.18 points or 0.10% to 3,093.51, and Taiwan Weighted was down by 21.45 points or 0.22% to 9,731.75.