Asian stock markets are generally seeing an upward trend on Tuesday, with investor fears of an escalating Middle East conflict being eased following 'measured' counterattacks by Iran and Israel that avoided any casualties. Traders also capitalized on bargains to prepare for the upcoming release of various key U.S. economic data, including reports on personal income and spending.
In the Australian market, notable gains were seen driven by the positive global market cues. The S&P/ASX 200 index is approaching the 7,700 level, with surges in iron ore miners, financial, and technology stocks. For instance, Rio Tinto, Fortescue Metals, and BHP Group improved marginally, while Mineral Resources saw a near 1% increase.
Oil stocks also yielded gains with Santos, Beach energy, and Woodside Energy almost increasing by 1%, while Origin Energy decreased slightly by 0.2%. In the technology sector, WiseTech Global and Xero each experienced a 0.5% uplift, Zip increased more than 2%, and Block, owner of Afterpay, progressed almost 1%.
However, the gold miners experienced a downward trend. Evolution Mining and Northern Star Resources lost almost 3% each, Newmont fell by more than 4%, and Resolute Mining declined more than 3%. Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, ANZ Banking, and National Australia Bank gained more than 1% each.
Additionally, the Australian dollar traded at $0.646 on Tuesday.
Japanese stock market also experienced moderate upward shift with the Nikkei 225 index breaching 37,500 level. However, gains in financial shares were somewhat balanced by losses from heavyweight indices.
The market performance of other countries in Asia varied. Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, and Malaysia experienced an increase of between 0.2 to 1.3% each, while New Zealand and China showed a decline of 0.4 and 0.6% respectively.
Wall Street exhibited a robust performance on Monday, particularly from the technology sector, as traders took advantage of the recent dip to purchase bargains. Weakening concerns regarding the Middle East situation added a positive note to the market sentiment.
Major averages, the Dow, the S&P 500, and the Nasdaq all closed on a strong note. Europe's major indices, the FTSE 100, the German DAX, and the French CAC 40 also reported positive results.
However, crude oil prices experienced a drop amid concerns about the future of global oil demand and recent data indicating a significant rise in U.S. crude inventories. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for May fell 0.34% to settle at $82.85 a barrel.
