Japan stimulus hopes boost world stock markets
HONG KONG - Japanese stocks jumped again, leading gains in world markets Tuesday as investors remained hopeful about the prospects of more stimuli following a stronger-than-expected election victory by the country's ruling coalition.
European stocks were off to a strong start, with France's CAC 40 rising 1.3 percent to 4,321.87 and Germany's DAX adding 1.2 percent to 9,955.73. Britain's FTSE 100 was up 0.2 percent to 6,695.74.
U.S. stocks were poised to open higher, with both Dow and S&P 500 futures up 0.4 percent.
Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 index surged 2.5 percent to close at 16,095.65 a day after soaring 4 percent. South Korea's Kospi edged up 0.1 percent to end at 1,991.23 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 1.7 percent to finish at 21,224.74. The Shanghai Composite Index in mainland China advanced 1.8 percent to 3,049.38 and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.3 percent to 5,353.20. Benchmarks in Taiwan, New Zealand and Southeast Asia also posted gains.
Investors continue to feel bullish after results on Monday showed Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party, which heads the ruling coalition, emerged victorious from parliamentary elections. Abe has promised new government spending to help aggressively jolt Asia's second-biggest economy back to life. While he has released few details, investors are betting he'll keep flooding the markets with money by expanding bond purchases using newly printed money in a program known as quantitative easing.
"Abe has always been supportive of quantitative easing, thus his victory has brought more hope to the market that we will probably see a new round of 'Abenomics' soon," said Margaret Yang of CMC Markets in Singapore.
Shares of Nintendo Co. jumped 12.7 percent in Tokyo, fueled by the craze for "Pokemon Go," a smartphone game based on the video game maker's characters that's become the top grossing app in the iPhone store less than a week after its release in the U.S., Australia and New Zealand. The "augmented reality" game layers gameplay onto the physical world, letting players wander the physical world in search of digital monsters.
Benchmark U.S. crude added 57 cents to $45.33 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 65 cents, or 1.4 percent, to close at $44.76 a barrel on Monday. Brent crude, a standard for international oil prices, rose 73 cents to $46.98 a barrel in London.
The dollar rose to 103.38 yen from 102.61 yen in late trading Monday. The euro rose to $1.1112 from $1.1060.