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Asian markets mostly gained early Tuesday after Wall Street continued to rally.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 NIK, -0.63% dipped 0.6% while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index HSI, +1.05% rose 1%. The Shanghai Composite SHCOMP, +0.29% advanced 0.2%, as the Shenzhen Composite 399106, +0.24% edged up 0.1%. South Korea’s Kospi 180721, -0.17% retreated slightly, while benchmark indexes in Singapore STI, +1.01% and Indonesia JAKIDX, +0.92% gained. Taiwan’s Taiex Y9999, +0.02% bounced between slight gains and losses, and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 XJO, +2.18% jumped 2.2% as traders returned from a Monday holiday.
Samsung Electronics 005930, and Samsung Biologics 207940, +2.25% gained while Samsung C&T fell 028260, -1.32% 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 DJIA, +1.70% climbed 461.46 points, or 1.7%, to end at 27,572.44, its sixth straight gain. The S&P 500 SPX, +1.20% rose 38.46 points, or 1.2%, finishing at 3,232.39. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, +1.12% 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 CLN20, +0.89% rose to $38.66 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude BRNQ20, +0.73% , the benchmark for international oils, rose to $41.24 a barrel in London.
The dollar USDJPY, -0.27% declined to 108.16 yen.
