Asian markets tracking Wall St rally

Bangkok: Shares were mostly higher in Asia on Tuesday after US stocks rallied to more records, with gains for technology companies pushing the benchmarks higher.US futures were flat and oil prices declined. This week has few top-tier economic reports apart from an update on Tuesday on how much American shoppers are spending at US retailers and a preliminary look Friday at the state of US business activity. US markets will be closed on Wednesday for the Juneteenth holiday.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index gained 0.9 per cent to 38,441.90. Toyota Motor Corp., a market heavyweight, gained 0.6 per cent after its shareholders rejected a proposal to force Akio Toyoda, grandson of the automaker’s founder, to leave his post as chairman of the board. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shed 0.2 per cent to 17,903.06 and the Shanghai Composite index gained 0.4 per cent to 3,026.61. In South Korea, the Kospi advanced 0.8 per cent to 2,766.22. In Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 jumped 1 per cent to 7,776.20 after the Reserve Bank of Australia kept its key interest rate unchanged.