Forex Pros – Asian stocks were broadly higher on Tuesday as market sentiment was boosted by upbeat corporate earnings reports from Wall Street, while Japanese exporters advanced amid optimism over the global economic recovery.
During late Asian trade, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index climbed 0.33%, South Korea's Kospi Composite added 0.22%, while Japan's Nikkei 225 Index jumped 1.15%.
Shares in many of the big name Japanese exporters advanced amid optimism over the global economic recovery, boosting the outlook for export earnings.
Shares in electronics giant Sony surged 2.31%, rival Toshiba saw shares climb 1.23%, while shares in Nissan Motor, which gets approximately 60% of its revenue abroad rose 1.93%.
Meanwhile, shares in the world's third largest maker of computer memory chips Elpida Memory rallied 2.29%, while rival Tokyo Electron saw shares gain 0.93% after chip manufacturing giant Texas Instruments reported better-than-expected fourth quarter earnings on Monday.
Earlier in the day, the Bank of Japan kept its benchmark interest rate and the size of its asset-buying fund unchanged, in line with expectations.
In Hong Kong, shares in the energy sector led gains after the nation's largest oil and gas producer PetroChina saw shares jump 1.14% after it said that it was targeting a 1.5 billion metric tons increase in proven oil reserves between 2011 and 2015 at its Changqing field, the nation's second largest oil field.
Shares in rival Sinopec surged 1.53%, China Shenhua Energy saw shares gain 0.57%, while shares in the nation's largest offshore oil producer Cnooc climbed 0.52%.
Elsewhere, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 Index rose 0.46% as market sentiment was boosted after official data showed that inflation in the fourth quarter rose by 0.4%, compared with economists' expectations for a 0.7% increase.
Meanwhile, shares in the financial sector performed strongly, with shares in the nation's largest lender National Australia Bank rising 0.69%. Shares in rival Commonwealth Bank of Australia added 0.54%, while Westpac Banking Group saw shares gain 0/49%.
The outlook for European equity markets, meanwhile, was mixed. The EURO STOXX 50 futures pointed to a gain of 0.15%, France's CAC 40 futures indicated an increase of 0.05%, the FTSE 100 futures pointed to a drop of 0.04%, while Germany's DAX futures were up 0.05%.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to produce data on consumer confidence, as well as a report on house prices.
