By: DailyForex.com
Asian stocks moved into positive territory on Tuesday, throwing off early losses as Chinese shares rose a day after marking their biggest loss in a month and crude prices took back some lost ground. Japanese and South Korean markets erased morning losses and the Australian market totted up a more than 1 percent gain.
According to Angus Nicholson, a market analyst at spread-bettor IG, "Asian markets have looked past the wobble in oil prices and Chinese data yesterday to push tentatively into the green. However, volumes are very low throughout the region, even lower than the pre-Christmas trade last week, so it is difficult to read too much into them. The major drag on markets today has come from the energy and materials sectors."
MSCI Up a Tad
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.1 percent, remaining on track to set a loss of around 12 percent for 2015, during a year when it reached more than a seven-year high in April.
China's blue-chip CSI300 index added 0.7 percent, while the Shanghai Composite Index was up 0.5 percent, as the central bank vowed to maintain reasonable credit growth and keep the yuan stable.
Energy trades across Asia were mostly down, with Australia's Oil Search closing down 0.6 percent and Japan's Inpex and Japan Petroleum down 0.81 and up 1.73 percent respectively. U.S. crude futures for February delivery were nearly flat at $36.84 a barrel, following a 3.4 percent decline overnight. The internationally traded Brent futures hovered near an 11-year low at $36.67 a barrel.