Asia-Pacific markets rose on Tuesday, tracking stocks on Wall Street as they surged for a second session. Australia said it’s maintaining its cash rate.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 gained 76.5 points, or 0.3%, to 27.001.96.
Some tech stocks rose, with SoftBank rising 1.1% and Sony paring earlier gains to inch up 0.4%.
Sony’s subsidiary Sony Interactive Entertainment announced Monday it has agreed to acquire privately held video game developer Bungie for $3.6 billion.
Meanwhile, Japan’s manufacturing activity grew at the fastest pace in nearly eight years, brought on by new orders and stronger output.
In Australia, the ASX 200 regained 34.4 points, or 0.5%, to 7,006.04.
Following the monetary policy decision, the Australian dollar was at $0.7040, down from levels around $0.706 earlier.
Data on Tuesday also showed that Australia’s retail sales in December fell 4.4% to $31.9 billion Australian dollars ($22.53 billion), after a 7.3% jump in November
The Reserve Bank of Australia maintained its cash rate at 0.1% on Tuesday, going against market expectations for a rate hike, although it ended its bond buying program as predicted.
In New Zealand, the NZX 50 jumped 169.54 points, or 1.4%, to 12,058.94.
In other markets
Markets in Shanghai, Korea, Singapore and Taiwan were shuttered for holiday.
