Asian stocks muted amid dearth of market moving news but European shares and US futures rise

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MANILA, Philippines – Asian stock markets were muted Tuesday with little news to excite investors, but European shares and U.S. futures were mostly higher.

In early European trading, Britain’s FTSE 100 was up 0.8 per cent at 6,571.0 and Germany’s DAX rose 0.8 per cent at 9,258.50. France’s CAC-40 climbed 0.9 per cent at 4,314.48.

Futures augured slightly higher opening on Wall Street, with S&P 500 futures up 0.1 per cent at 1,851.90. Dow Jones industrial futures edged up 0.1 per cent to 16,224.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed 0.4 per cent lower at 14,423.19. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.5 per cent to 21,732.32 while China’s Shanghai Composite rose 0.5 per cent at 2,067.31.

Benchmarks fell in Australia, South Korea, and most of Southeast Asia and were up in Taiwan, New Zealand and Malaysia.

“The general mood is somewhat expectant of stimulus measures coming out of China,” said Dariusz Kowalczyk of Credit Agricole in Hong Kong. “But there’s no data in the region of a sort of first tier nature and therefore we are not seeing major market moves.”

Expectations China might announce stimulus spending were boosted Monday by a survey of factory purchasing managers that showed Chinese manufacturing contracted in March.

Benchmark oil for May delivery was up 24 cents to $99.84 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 14 cents to close at $99.60 on Monday.

In currencies, the euro fell to $1.3835 from $1.3836 late Monday in New York. The dollar fell to 102.16 yen from 102.25 yen.