Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading higher in the early deals on Tuesday after Wall Street finished higher overnight. The upcoming Federal Reserve chair's testimony at US Congress later in the day, his first public appearance as chair of the Fed, was in focus. Meanwhile, Japan’s Nikkei share average soared to more than a three-week high after large market capitalization stocks in the Topix’s Core 30 stocks led the gains, while Inpex attracted buying after it won a stake in an Abu Dhabi oil concession. Among the other Asian markets, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong and Taiwan are also higher. Bucking the trend, Shanghai is lower.
Nikkei 225 jumped 266.86 points or 1.2% to 22,420.49, Hang Seng added 45.59 points or 0.14% to 31,544.19, Straits Times gained 1.76 points or 0.05% to 3,557.61, Taiwan Weighted rose 35.04 points or 0.32% to 10,871.74, Jakarta Composite spurt 24.53 points or 0.37% to 6,579.20, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 9.25 points or 0.5% to 1,869.33, and KOSPI Index up by 8.99 points or 0.37% to 2,466.64.
On the flip side, Shanghai Composite was down by 30.34 points or 0.91% to 3,299.24.
