SINGAPORE — Stocks in Asia-Pacific traded higher on Tuesday morning following an overnight jump on Wall Street.
South Korea’s Kospi jumped more than 2% in morning trade as shares of industry heavyweight Samsung Electronics and chipmaker SK Hynix surged more than 3% each. The Taiex in Taiwan also saw strong gains as it surged 2.32%.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 gained 0.72% while the Topix index advanced 0.81%. Shares of Japanese game maker Nintendo rose about 0.7% in Tuesday morning trade after the firm on Monday increased its full-year forecast for Switch games console sales.
The Japanese government is set to extend the state of emergency covering Tokyo and other regions till March 7 in order to contain the coronavirus, local media reported.
Mainland Chinese markets nudged higher, with the Shanghai composite up 0.27%% while the Shenzhen component gained 0.716%.
Over in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 was up 1.31%.
The Reserve Bank of Australia is expected to announce its interest rate decision at around 11:30 a.m. HK/SIN on Tuesday.
Ahead of that announcement, the Australian dollar changed hands at $0.7651, after seeing levels above $0.774 last week.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan traded 1.6% higher.
UK looks to join TPP
Currencies and oil
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 90.882 after rising earlier from levels below 90.6.
The Japanese yen traded at 104.86 per dollar, weaker than levels below 104 against the greenback seen last week.
Oil prices were higher in the morning of Asia trading hours, with international benchmark Brent crude futures up 1.06% to $56.95 per barrel. U.S. crude futures advanced 1.14% to $54.16 per barrel.
Here’s a look at what’s on tap:
- Australia: Reserve Bank of Australia’s interest rate decision at 11:30 a.m. HK/SIN
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Source: CNBC