Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading up in the early deals on Tuesday as the record closing highs overnight on Wall Street as investors await index provider MSCI's decision on whether to include China A-shares in its emerging markets index after rejecting it on three previous occasions. Besides, the dollar strengthened following comments from Federal Reserve officials over future interest rate hikes, also fuelled the uptrend. Meanwhile, Japan's Nikkei share average probed its highest levels in nearly two years, powered by record highs on Wall Street and a weaker yen. Among the other Asian markets, Shanghai, South Korea, Indonesia and Taiwan are higher. Bucking the trend, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Singapore are lower.
Nikkei 225 added 226.69 points or 1.13% to 20,294.44, Shanghai Composite gained 1.88 points or 0.06% to 3,146.25, Taiwan Weighted increased 86.99 points or 0.85% to 10,337.59, Jakarta Composite rose 8.87 points or 0.15% to 5,750.78, and KOSPI Index was up by 0.02 points or 0% to 2,370.92.
On the flip side, Hang Seng declined 20.73 points or 0.08% to 25,903.82, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI dropped 7.08 points or 0.4% to 1,781.82, and Straits Times was down by 4.03 points or 0.12% to 3,243.15.