Asia Pacific Shares Rise Increased; Baidu strikes up on debut in Hong Kong

SINGAPORE – Asia Pacific stocks were mixed in trading on Tuesday, with Chinese search giant Baidu making its debut in Hong Kong.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 rose 0.53% while the Topix index rose 0.33%. South Korea’s Kospi slipped easily.

Mainland China stocks were down as the Shanghai Composite lost 0.21% while the Shenzhen Component fell 0.287%. The Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong has hardly changed.

Australian stocks rose, with the S & P / ASX 200 up 0.26%.

MSCI’s broadest index for stocks in the Asia-Pacific region outside of Japan rose 0.15%.

On corporate development, Baidu’s stock was traded in Hong Kong on Tuesday, with shares gaining more than 1% from issue price in early trading. The company joins a long list of US-listed Chinese tech companies that have made secondary offers in Hong Kong, including Alibaba and JD.com.

Tech Stock Watch

Meanwhile, tech stocks in Asia Pacific were mixed on Tuesday morning. The shares of the Japanese conglomerate Softbank Group gained 0.17%, while the heavyweight of the South Korean industry, Samsung Electronics, gained 0.12%. LG Electronics, on the other hand, fell 2.9%.

In Hong Kong, Tencent shares rose 0.47% while Alibaba fell 0.26%.

The moves in regional tech stocks came after their counterparts in the US rallied overnight on falling bond yields. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 1.23% to close at 13,377.54.

Other major indexes on Wall Street also rose that day: the S&P 500 rose 0.7% to 3,940.59 while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 103.23 points to 32,731.20.

The moves in the US came as the 10-year Treasury yield fell 5 basis points to around 1.68% (1 basis point is 0.01%) after a 14-month high hit last week. It was last at 1.6964%.

Currencies and oil

The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback versus a basket of its peers, came in at 91.829 – still above the level below 91.5 seen last week.

The Japanese yen was trading at 108.84 per dollar, stronger than above 108.75 against the greenback last week. The Australian dollar changed hands at $ 0.7726, still below the $ 0.78 level seen last week.

Oil prices fell on the morning of trading hours in Asia, with the international benchmark’s Brent crude oil futures falling 0.99% to $ 63.98 a barrel. US crude oil futures were down 0.96% to $ 60.97 a barrel.

– CNBC’s Arjun Kharpal contributed to this report.

Correction: This article has been updated to accurately reflect the level of the US Dollar Index.