SINGAPORE — Stocks in Asia-Pacific rose in Tuesday trade following an overnight jump on Wall Street.
India’s Nifty 50 jumped about 2.8% while the BSE Sensex also surged more than 3.17%. That came after India’s finance minister on Monday presented the country’s budget for the fiscal year that begins April 1 and ends March 31, 2022.
The Taiex in Taiwan also saw strong gains as it rose 2.51%. South Korea’s Kospi jumped about 1% in afternoon trade.
Mainland Chinese markets nudged higher, with the Shanghai composite up 0.55% while the Shenzhen component gained 1.544%.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 gained 0.81% while the Topix index advanced 0.8%. Shares of Japanese game maker Nintendo fell around 1% in Tuesday afternoon trade, shedding earlier gains. 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.
Over in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 was up 1.56%.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan traded 1.75% higher.
RBA keeps cash rate steady
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) on Tuesday announced its decision to maintain its cash rate at 0.1% as well as purchase an additional 100 billion Australian dollars of bonds (approx. $76.32 billion).
In a statement, RBA Governor Philip Lowe said: The Board will not increase the cash rate until actual inflation is sustainably within the 2 to 3 per cent target range.”
“For this to occur, wages growth will have to be materially higher than it is currently. This will require significant gains in employment and a return to a tight labour market,” Lowe said. “The Board does not expect these conditions to be met until 2024 at the earliest.”
Following that announcement, the Australian dollar changed hands at $0.7626, after seeing an earlier high of $0.7661.
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 90.88 after rising earlier from levels below 90.6.
The Japanese yen traded at 104.94 per dollar, weaker than levels below 104 against the greenback seen last week.
Oil prices were higher in the afternoon of Asia trading hours, with international benchmark Brent crude futures up 0.94% to $56.88 per barrel. U.S. crude futures advanced 1.01% to $54.09 per barrel.
Subscribe to CNBC PRO for exclusive insights and analysis, and live business day programming from around the world.
Source: CNBC