Gains in Asia-Pacific equities

Asia-Pacific equities markets saw gains on Tuesday. India’s Sensex was up 0.15 percent to 18,075.66. The FTSE Straits Times Index was 0.48 percent higher to 3,098.06 while in Australia the Sydney Ordinaries added 0.97 percent to 5,688.6 and the S&P/ASX200 gained 1.09 percent to 5,619.1. In South Korea the Kospi was up 1.43 percent to 1,720.52 while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was 1.53 percent higher to 24,123.17. The Taiex added 1.69 percent to 8,024.41 and the Shanghai Composite gained 2.1 percent to 4,664.3. In Tokyo the Nikkei was up 0.9 percent to 13,757.91 and the Topix index was 0.92 percent higher to 1,345.29 but the Mothers market of small and mid-caps dropped 0.67 percent to 688.83.

Most European equities markets were higher, but Madrid’s IBEX dropped 0.32 percent to 13,269.7. The Paris CAC-40 was up 0.49 percent to 4,885.83 and the Dax added 0.5 percent to 7,002.29. The pan-European FTSE Eurofirst 300 was 0.17 percent higher to 1,337.54. In London, the FTSE 100 added 0.34 percent to 5,966.9 while the FTSE 200 jumped 1.24 percent to 10,208.6.

Wall Street was helped by news from the retail sector that could mean consumers are less pessimistic than generally assumed. In early afternoon trade in New York the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 0.72 percent higher to 12,436.62 while the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.58 percent to 2,335.24 and the S&P 500 had added 0.67 percent to 1,359.

Crude oil and metals prices were higher, with new records for platinum once again. Grains prices were also up.

The euro gained on the US dollar, the yen, and the pound, while the Australian dollar was higher versus most major currencies on the possibility that interest rates could rise there.

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