ASIA MARKETS: Nikkei Scores One-month Closing High, But Global Rally Slows In Asia

Japanese stocks boosted by falling yen

The start-of-week global stock rally slowed in Asia, with many markets posting logging gains on Tuesday, even as investors' risk sentiment continues to improve.

Equities in Japan and Australia, two of the region's worst-performing markets this year, were up strongly thanks to country-specific boosts.

Stocks rallied around the world on Monday (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/global-stocks-at-all-time-high-and-3-other-charts-that-show-the-return-of-upbeat-investors-2017-09-11) as last week's caution involving issues including North Korea and hurricanes hitting the U.S. ebbed. The related move lower in haven assets such as the yen and gold also paused in Asia on Tuesday, with both near their late levels in New York.

"The world's financial markets are the very picture of calm and tranquility, where the short sellers are getting squeezed and the bulls are once again dominating," said Chris Weston, chief market strategist at IG Markets in a note to clients.

Japan's Nikkei Stock Average rose 1.2% to close at its highest level in more than a month as the yen continued to fall after the close of Monday's stock trading. The dollar was at Yen108.35; it has since risen a full yen. Exporters' shares often rise when the yen declines, and that has helped boost the market in Tokyo again on Tuesday. Nintendo (7974.TO) jumped 3.3% after climbing 1.9% Monday.

Australia was also outperforming. That market has been under pressure by weakness in the country's big-bank stocks. But those firms' shares rose at least 1% on Tuesday, helped by smaller peer Macquarie, which gave an upbeat morning update about its recent performance.

Miners, which like banks make up a big portion of the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 , were also posting 1%-plus gains. The Australian benchmark index closed 0.6% higher.

Elsewhere, advances were more muted.

In Taiwan, the benchmark Taiex ended 0.4% higher after earlier setting a 27-year intraday high in rising more than 0.5%.

Taiwan's market is under watch, as many companies there are suppliers to Apple (AAPL) , which is holding a product-launch event later Tuesday that will include the latest iPhones.

Read:New Apple iPhone's key feature is its price tag (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/new-apple-iphones-key-feature-is-its-price-tag-2017-09-09)

The major stock indexes in New Zealand and Hong Kong were struggling to rise on Tuesday. New Zealand's benchmark was hurt by a 1.4% drop in benchmark heavyweight Auckland International Airport (AIA.NZ) , while Hong Kong's Hang Seng was held back by weakness in property stocks, which have been surging, and some oil companies. State-controlled Cnooc (0883.HK) dropped 0.4%.

Tuesday's market calm doesn't mean North Korea has been forgotten, especially as new United Nations sanctions were levied.

"This is not a garden-variety or transitory uptick in inter-Korea tensions," said Aninda Mitra, an analyst at asset manager Standish Mellon. That means demand for havens will remain elevated, he added.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 12, 2017 06:44 ET (10:44 GMT)