Asian stock markets rise after Wall Street rally

TERESA CEROJANO

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Asian stock markets rose Tuesday after Wall Street indexes hit record highs, with Japan's Nikkei 225 leading gains as the yen weakened.

The Nikkei climbed 1.7 percent at 14,384.32 after a smaller-than-expected current account surplus for Japan weakened the yen. A weak yen usually boosts the share prices of Japanese exporters.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.3 percent at 22,327.53 while China's Shanghai Composite index was barely changed at 2,052.68. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.7 percent at 5,487.10 and South Korea's Kospi was up 1 percent at 1,984.07.

Markets were also up in the Philippines, Indonesia and New Zealand. Bourses were closed for holidays in Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

Investors are awaiting data due later Tuesday for China's industrial production, fixed asset investment and retail sales.

Stan Shamu, market strategist at IG in Melbourne, Australia said in a commentary that "these readings are expected to show signs of continued subdued growth, with most of them relatively unchanged from the previous readings."

Also awaited is the U.S. federal budget, which is expected to show significant fiscal tightening.

Some U.S. indexes returned to record levels on Monday as investors regained their appetite for riskier stocks.

After beating down Internet and small companies for two months, investors decided that those stocks had fallen enough. Among the big gainers were Twitter and Facebook, which had plunged in March and April

The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 18.17 points, or 1 percent, to finish at an all-time high of 1,896.65. The index last closed at a record high on April 2, when it reached 1,890.90.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 112.13 points, or 0.7 percent, to end at 16,695.47 Monday. The Dow's previous record high was 16,583.34 on Friday. The Nasdaq climbed 71.99 points, or 1.8 percent, to 4,143.86.

Benchmark crude for June delivery was down 3 cents at $100.56 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The near-month contract for the benchmark grade rose 60 cents to $100.59 on Monday.

In currencies, the euro slipped to $1.3755 from $1.3758 late Monday. The dollar rose to 102.24 yen from 102.15 yen.