Most of the Asian equity benchmarks traded higher in early deals on Tuesday, as the optimism on global recovery, and stronger crude oil boosted equity investments. However, market sentiments got dulled with the spread of delta variant of covid19 and the restrictions to contain it. Traders were also cautious after the Cyberspace Administration of China ordered app stores to remove Didi from their offerings earlier in the week, with the crackdown coming just days after the ride-hailing giant listed in New York. Participants also awaited for Federal Reserve’s June policy meeting minutes due on Wednesday for more cues on stimulus tapering. The inevitable higher energy prices, and upbeat US job report, might trigger central bank’s hawkish mode. Japan’s Nikkei rebounded from its earlier losses with the benchmark above the 28,680 level, amid upbeat local data on rising household spending in May. Among the Asian markets, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, Indonesia and Malaysia are trading higher. Bucking the trend, Hong Kong, and China are in negative trend.
Nikkei 225 up by 89.75 points or 0.31% to 28,687.94, Straits Times rose 37.05 points or 1.18% to 3,178.07, Taiwan Weighted enlarged by 6.70 points or 0.04% to 17,926.03, KOSPI jumped 13.18 points or 0.40% to 3,306.39, Jakarta Composite lifted by 30.71 points 0.51% to 6,036.32, and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI widened by 1.27 points 0.08% to 1,533.63.
On the flip side, Shanghai Composite down by 18.68 points or 0.53% to 3,515.64 , and Hang Seng lower by 163.27 points or 0.58% to 27,980.23.