Most Asia-Pacific equities markets gain

Equities markets in the Asia-Pacific region were mixed on Tuesday as most markets were open again after closures for the Lunar New Year holiday. South Korea’s Kospi index added 0.16 percent to 1,643.29. In Australia the Sydney Ordinaries gained 1.18 percent to 5,669.4 and the S&P/ASX200 was 1.27 percent higher to 5,608.1. The Hang Seng was up 1.35 percent to 22,921.67 while the FTSE Straits Times Index added 2.02 percent to 2,926.23. Losers included India’s Sensex, with a decline of 0.14 percent to 16,608.01. Taiwan’s Taiex dropped 1.57 percent to 7,553.3. Markets in China remained closed

Tokyo’s markets were mixed. The Nikkei 225 added 0.04 percent to 13,021.96 but the Topix index fell 0.08 percent to 1,286.1 and the Mothers market dropped 0.84 percent to 597.07.

European markets were higher on the session after US tycoon Warren Buffet offered to help bond insurers. The FTSE Eurofirst 300 was up 3.36 percent to 1,334.21. The Dax was 3.33 percent higher to 6,967.84 while the Paris CAC-40 added 3.37 percent to 4,840.71 and the IBEX gained 3.4 percent to 13,254.7. London’s markets also saw gains, with the FTSE 100 adding 3.19 percent to 5,889.6 and the FTSE 250 seeing a gain of 3.13 percent to 10,040.2.

Wall Street was up in early afternoon trade, helped by Warren Buffet’s offer of help to bond insurers, in which he said he would be willing to reinsure up to $800 billion in municipal bonds insured by several of the insurers. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was 1.5 percent higher to 12,423.24 while the Nasdaq Composite added 0.7 percent to 2,336.27 and the S&P 500 gained 1.17 percent to 1,354.77.

Crude oil prices were slightly lower, and precious metals prices fell. Grains prices declined again.

The euro gained on the US dollar and the yen, while the Canadian dollar saw gains but the yen declined against all major currencies.

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