Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading up in the early deals on Tuesday as higher commodity prices, upbeat corporate earnings results from Japanese companies and better-than-expected China Caixin manufacturing PMI data boosted investors’ sentiments. The latest survey from Caixin revealed that the manufacturing sector in China picked up steam in July, with a Manufacturing PMI score of 51.1. That beat forecasts for 50.4, which would have been unchanged from the previous month. Meanwhile, Japan's Nikkei share average rose, buoyed by companies reporting strong earnings such as Nitto Denko and Mitsui Sumitomo Financial Group, though gains were tempered by a stronger yen. Among the other Asian markets, South Korea, Shanghai, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Taiwan are also higher. Bucking the trend, Indonesia is lower.
Nikkei 225 gained 48.73 points or 0.24% to 19,973.91, Hang Seng surged 200.08 points or 0.73% to 27,524.07, Taiwan Weighted increased 29.91 points or 0.29% to 10,457.24, KOSPI Index jumped 24.84 points or 1.03% to 2,427.55, Shanghai Composite rose 13.28 points or 0.41% to 3,286.31, Straits Times added 1.86 points or 0.06% to 3,331.38, and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was up by 7.69 points or 0.44% to 1,767.72.
On the flip side, Jakarta Composite was down by 8.72 points or 0.15% to 5,832.22.