Japan’s Nikkei 225 leads gains as Asia stocks rise after S&P 500 closes at new record overnight
Shares in Asia rose in Tuesday trade after the S&P 500 notched yet another record close on Wall Street overnight.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 led gains among the region’s major markets as it gained 1.37% on the day to 29,069.16 while the Topix index advanced 1.37% to 2,005.02.
Elsewhere, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was close to flat as of its final hour of trading.
Hong Kong-listed Chinese tech stocks largely fell, with shares of Tencent down 2.82% while Meituan dropped 1.5%. Alibaba shares, on the other hand, gained 0.35%. The Hang Seng Tech index declined 1.13%.
Those moves came after the Financial Times reported Didi has indefinitely barred employees from selling their shares. Meanwhile, uncertainty remains over the outlook for Chinese companies looking to pursue overseas IPOs.
Mainland Chinese stocks closed higher as the Shanghai composite gained 0.39% to 3,630.11 while the Shenzhen component advanced 0.831% to 14,837.87.
South Korea’s Kospi ended its trading day 0.69% higher at 3,020.24.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan climbed 0.41%.
Markets in Australia are closed on Tuesday for a holiday.
S&P 500 rises to new record again
Overnight stateside, the S&P 500 jumped almost 1.4% to its 69th record close of the year. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite also saw robust gains, surging 1.39% to 15,871.26. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 351.82 points to 36,302.38.
Currencies and oil
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 96.085 — still off levels above 96.6 seen last week.
The Japanese yen traded at 114.87 per dollar, following yesterday’s weakening from levels below 114.5 against the greenback. The Australian dollar was at $0.7242, largely holding on to gains after its rise from below $0.714 last week.
Oil prices were higher in the afternoon of Asia trading hours, with international benchmark Brent crude futures up about 0.1% to $78.66 per barrel. U.S. crude futures also gained 0.15% to $75.68 per barrel.
