HONG KONG- Asian shares climbed in morning trade on Tuesday, tracking a Wall Street rally overnight, while the dollar held near a fourth-month low as investors tempered fears about inflation-driven rate hikes.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 1 percent at a two-week high, after US stocks ended the previous session with mild gains.
Australian shares were up 0.69 percent, while Japan’s Nikkei stock index rose 0.6 percent.
Chinese stocks hit a 2-1/2-month high on financial services, consumer and tourism gains in morning trade. The blue-chip CSI300 index jumped 1.89 percent, while the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index advanced 1.39 percent, reaching their highest levels since early March.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose 1.05 percent.
“Markets were buoyed as data flow didn’t live up to the strong-inflation narrative, and amid repeated guidance from senior central bank figures that the current rise in inflation is temporary,” ANZ analysts wrote in a note.
The US national activity index reading of 0.24 against expectations above 1, along with dovish comments from Federal Reserve speakers, helped support the view that policy will remain on hold for some time.
Still, after global service sector surveys showed strong growth last Friday, all eyes will be on the release of US personal consumption data on Thursday, the Fed’s preferred inflation measure.
Overnight, Wall Street closed higher, spurred by gains in tech stocks, with the sector’s majors Apple up 1.33 percent and Microsoft up 2.29 percent.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.54 percent while the S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained 0.99 percent and 1.41 percent, respectively.
