Asian markets mostly gained early Tuesday after Wall Street continued to rally.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 JP:NIK dipped 0.6% while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index HK:HSI rose 1%. The Shanghai Composite CN:SHCOMP advanced 0.2%, as the Shenzhen Composite CN:399106 edged up 0.1%. South Korea’s Kospi KR:180721 retreated slightly, while benchmark indexes in Singapore SG:STI and Indonesia ID:JAKIDX gained. Taiwan’s Taiex TW:Y9999 bounced between slight gains and losses, and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 AU:XJO jumped 2.2% as traders returned from a Monday holiday.
Samsung Electronics KR:005930 and Samsung Biologics KR:207940 gained while Samsung C&T fell KR:028260 after a South Korean court refused to issue an arrest warrant for Lee Jae-yong, head of the Samsung Group, citing a lack of evidence for corruption charges, according to Yonhap News Agency. Lee was imprisoned for about a year in 2017 on related bribery and embezzlement charges, but was freed pending a retrial.
Geopolitical tensions also rose after North Korea said it would cut off communications channels with South Korea over the South’s inability to stop activists from sending anti-North leaflets across the border in balloons.
“With risk sentiment at overly bullish levels, broader markets will remain extremely sensitive to bad news on any front, be it economic or geopolitical,” Stephen Innes, chief global markets strategist at AxiCorp, wrote in a note.
On Monday, U.S. stock benchmarks finished above, or near, their all-time closing highs as the country continued to reopen from coronavirus-related shutdowns, raising hopes for a quick economic rebound.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average US:DJIA climbed 461.46 points, or 1.7%, to end at 27,572.44, its sixth straight gain. The S&P 500 US:SPX rose 38.46 points, or 1.2%, finishing at 3,232.39. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index US:COMP gained 110.66 points, or 1.1%, ending at 9,924.74, a new all-time closing record.
In energy markets, benchmark U.S. crude US:CLN20 rose to $38.66 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude UK:BRNQ20 , the benchmark for international oils, rose to $41.24 a barrel in London.
The dollar US:USDJPY declined to 108.16 yen.
