CANBERA (dpa-AFX) - Asian stock markets are mostly higher on Tuesday following the overnight gains on Wall Street. Nevertheless, investors are cautious as they awaited the outcome of the U.S. Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan meetings due this week.
The U.S. central bank, which is scheduled to meet later on Tuesday and Wednesday, is widely expected to hold interest rates unchanged this month, although it is very likely to signal a rate cut sometime in the near term.
The Australian market is rising following the positive cues from Wall Street.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is adding 33.50 points or 0.51 percent to 6,564.40, after touching a high of 6,568.50 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 33.80 points or 0.51 percent to 6,643.20. Australian stocks edged lower on Monday.
Coles said it is targeting A$1 billion in cumulative savings over a four-year period, including its announcement last Friday that it will cut 450 jobs from its Melbourne head office. The supermarket chain's shares are gaining almost 7 percent.
Others in the consumer staple sector also saw gains. Woolworths Group is adding 0.6 percent and Wesfarmers is advancing almost 1 percent.
In the tech sector, Xero is rising more than 2 percent and Appen is advancing almost 2 percent.
Gold miners are also higher even as gold prices edged lower overnight. Evolution Mining is advancing more than 1 percent and Newcrest Mining is up 0.6 percent.
Among the big four banks, ANZ Banking and Westpac are edging up 0.1 percent each, while Commonwealth Bank is advancing 1 percent. National Australia Bank is edging down 0.1 percent.
In the mining space, Fortescue Metals is lower by more than 1 percent, Rio Tinto is declining 0.5 percent and BHP Group is down 0.2 percent.
In the oil sector, Oil Search is declining 0.7 percent and Woodside Petroleum is edging down 0.1 percent, while Santos is up 0.1 percent after crude oil prices declined overnight.
BlueScope Steel said it expects its fiscal 2019 underlying EBIT to miss expectations and also announced it will extend the current on-market share buy-back program by up to A$250 million. The steel producer's shares are declining 0.5 percent.
On the economic front, the Reserve Bank of Australia will release the minutes from its June 4 meeting today. At the meeting, the RBA reduced its key interest rate by a quarter point from 1.50 percent to an historic low of 1.25 percent as policymakers aim to bring inflation to target. It was the first reduction since August 2016.
Australia also will see first-quarter numbers for house prices today.
In the currency market, the Australian dollar is lower against the U.S dollar on Tuesday. The local currency was quoted at $0.6855, down from $0.6874 on Monday.
The Japanese market gave up modest gains earlier in the session and is currently lower. Investors remained cautious ahead of the upcoming monetary policy decisions by the U.S. Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan this week.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is declining 42.56 points or 0.20 percent to 21,081.44, after touching a high of 21,153.65 earlier. Japanese shares ended marginally higher on Monday.
Market heavyweight SoftBank is losing more than 1 percent and Fast Retailing is declining 0.7 percent. SoftBank's Vision Fund has led a $205 million investment in San Francisco-based health startup Collective Health.
In the auto space, Toyota Motor is advancing almost 1 percent and Honda Motor is rising 0.5 percent.
The major exporters are mostly lower on a stronger yen. Sony is lower by almost 1 percent, Canon is declining 0.2 percent and Mitsubishi Electric is edging down 0.1 percent, while Panasonic is adding more than 1 percent.
Among tech stocks, Tokyo Electron is declining more than 1 percent, while Advantest is edging up 0.1 percent.
In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is rising 0.2 percent and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is higher by 0.4 percent. In the oil sector, Inpex is losing more than 1 percent, while Japan Petroleum is edging up 0.1 percent after crude oil prices declined overnight.
Among the other major gainers, Shionogi & Co., Tokuyama Corp. and Toppan Printing are all rising more than 2 percent each.
On the flip side, Tokai Carbon is losing 4 percent and JGC Corp. is lower by more than 3 percent. Tokyo Electric Power and Aozora Bank are declining almost 3 percent each.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the mid 108 yen-range on Tuesday.
Elsewhere in Asia, South Korea, Singapore, New Zealand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Taiwan are also higher, while Shanghai is lower.
On Wall Street, stocks gave back ground going into the close of trading on Monday, but still closed higher. The strength on Wall Street partly reflected optimism the Fed will signal a near-term interest rate cut when announcing its monetary policy decision on Wednesday.
While the Nasdaq climbed 48.37 points or 0.7 percent to 7,845.02, the Dow edged up 22.92 points or 0.1 percent to 26,112.53 and the S&P 500 inched up 2.69 points or 0.1 percent to 2,889.67.
The major European markets ended mixed on Monday. While the German DAX Index edged down by 0.1 percent, the U.K'.s FTSE 100 Index inched up by 0.2 and the French CAC 40 Index rose by 0.4 percent.
Crude oil prices drifted lower on Monday amid renewed concerns about energy demand prospects due to economic slowdown in China. WTI crude for July dipped $0.58 or 1.1 percent to close at $51.93 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
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