Japan, Hong Kong shares track Wall Street advance

Tokyo Stock Exchange building in Tokyo, Japan on October 9, 2015. Tokyo is both the capital and largest city of Japan. (ShutterStock)

TOKYO—Shares in Japan and Hong Kong gained Tuesday, tracking an overnight rally on Wall Street, where indexes set fresh record highs. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell, and the South Korean and Shanghai markets were closed for national holidays.

KEEPING SCORE: Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 jumped 1.1 per cent to finish at 20,614.07 as the yen weakened against the U.S. dollar, boosting exporters’ shares. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 1.9 per cent to 28,065.19. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.5 per cent to 5,701.40. India’s Sensex gained 0.8 per cent to 31,526.93 and shares in Southeast Asia were mixed.

WALL STREET: The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 0.4 per cent to 2,529.12. The Dow Jones industrial average advanced 0.7 per cent to 22,557.60. The Nasdaq composite gained 0.3 per cent to 6,516.72 and the Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks jumped 1.2 per cent to 1,509.47. All four indexes finished at record highs on optimism about a recovery in manufacturing.

THE QUOTE: “In terms of overnight drivers to consider, on one hand, we saw the U.S. September ISM manufacturing print coming in at 60.8, where you have to go back to May 2004 to find a similar pace of expansion in US manufacturing,” Chris Weston of IG said in a commentary.

ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude fell 11 cents to $50.49 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It lost $1.09, or 2.1 per cent, to $50.58 a barrel overnight in New York. Brent crude, the standard for international oil prices, shed 25 cents to $55.87 a barrel in London.

LAS VEGAS: In the U.S., MGM Resorts stock fell after a man shot and killed at least 59 people and wounded more than 500 at a concert at MGM’s Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. It was the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history. Police say the shooter was 64-year-old Stephen Paddock and that he shot and killed himself inside the hotel.

CURRENCIES: The dollar rose to 113.06 yen from 112.87 yen late Monday in Asia. The euro fell to $1.1715 from $1.1733.