Asian stocks today: Asian equity markets traded sharply higher on Tuesday, tracking a strong overnight rally on Wall Street, where technology shares staged a recovery and falling crude oil prices helped US benchmarks record their best session in seven months. South Korea led the regional advance, while Japanese equities also rebounded after suffering heavy losses in the previous week.
Meanwhile, Indian equity markets remained closed on Tuesday for Diwali-Balipratipada, leaving global cues in focus ahead of the next domestic trading session.
MSCI Inc.’s gauge of regional equities climbed 1.6%. South Korea's Kospi Index jumped more than 5% in early trading, while Japan's Nikkei 225 advanced nearly 4%. A broader gauge of Asian shares rose 1.5%, and futures tracking US benchmark indices edged higher. Among other regional markets, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index gained 0.31% to 24,517, while Singapore's Straits Times Index slipped 0.04% to 5,257.
The recovery in Japan followed a nearly 6% decline in the Nikkei on Friday, when artificial intelligence-related stocks came under intense selling pressure. Technology investor SoftBank Group surged 14.38% on Tuesday, while semiconductor equipment makers Advantest and Tokyo Electron gained 4.93% and 5.66%, respectively. Memory-chip maker Kioxia also jumped 7.6%, reflecting renewed buying interest in the sector.
The gains across the region followed a strong performance on Wall Street on Monday. The S&P 500 recorded its biggest single-day rally in last 7 months, since April 8, while the Nasdaq 100 ended 3.4% higher. A gauge of semiconductor stocks surged nearly 7%, signalling a broad recovery in chipmakers.