Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading up in the early deals on Tuesday, after police said they were treating an explosion in Manchester, England, that killed at least 19 people as a terror attack. Oil prices fell back after Monday's rally. Though, the Japanese market is modestly lower in choppy trade. The safe-haven yen strengthened and weighed on exporters' shares. Among the other Asian markets, South Korea, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore are all higher. Bucking the trend, Malaysia and Shanghai is lower.
Straits Times added 15.93 points or 0.50% to 3,229.50, Hang Seng spurt 70.09 points or 0.28% to 25,461.43, KOSPI Index increased 21.62 points or 0.94% to 2,325.65, Jakarta Composite gained 2 points or 0.03% to 5,751.45, and Taiwan Weighted was up by 26.3 points or 0.26% to 10,023.56.
On the flips side, Nikkei 225 dipped 15.27 points or 0.08% to 19,663.01, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI dropped 3.84 points or 0.22% to 1,771.11, and Shanghai Composite was down by 3.01 points or 0.1% to 3,072.67.