ShriNavaratnam

Activity remained fairly subdued as many Asian markets--including Singapore, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan--were closed for the Lunar New Year holidays and also due to Monday's U.S. market holiday. Japan's Nikkei 225 was up 0.4%, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was up 1.1% and New Zealand's NZX-50 was up 0.5%. South Korea's Kospi, which resumed trading after a holiday Monday, was up 0.6%

Doubts on whether an explicit rescue plan would be delivered for fiscally stressed Greece at an ongoing meeting of European Union finance ministers sidelined some investors. "It appears markets remain sceptical over the chances of concrete measures being announced to support Greece," said Bank of New Zealand in a report.

But there were signs these concerns were easing. Macquarie Private Wealth client adviser Marcus Droga, said he expects the EU to ring fence Greece's sovereign debt issues, adding that China's policy tightening should help keep growth on a sustainable footing. "They will do what they need to do and we can get on with this patchy global economic recovery," he said.

The Australian market was lifted by stronger-than-expected earnings. Westpac bank rose 4.2% after its first quarter cash earnings jumped 33%. Other banks followed Westpac's lead, with ANZ bank up 3.3% and Commonwealth Bank of Australia adding 1.1%.

Materials firms also were also rising, with BHP Billiton up 0.5% and Rio Tinto advancing 1.1%.

OneSteel tacked on 5.0% after its first half profit of A$117 million beat expectations in the A$50 million-A$100 million range.

Macquarie's Droga said the positive earnings surprises should help the market hold some of its gains. "The results so far have mainly been above consensus and that's very positive for our market going forward," he said.

In Japan, some brokerage upgrades were helping stocks like ANA, which advanced 3.5% after Citigroup raised its rating to "buy." Panasonic also rose 1.9% after Citigroup upgraded its rating to "hold." Exporters with high exposure to Europe were weak, with Mazda down 1.4%.

Shinichiro Matsushita, market analyst at Daiwa Securities, said the market has few trading cues due to the holidays. "We may see a calm trading day, with few factors to jolt the market," he said.

KDDI added 0.3% after trading company Sumitomo Corp. said it will launch a tender offer of up to Y122.18 billion to lift its stake in Jupiter Telecommunications to 40% from 27%. The bid comes three weeks after KDDI, Japan's No. 2 telecom carrier by subscribers, said it would pay about $4 billion to buy a 38% stake in Jupiter from Liberty Media Corp. of the U.S. Sumitomo is offering Y139,500 per Jupiter share, a 55% premium to Jupiter's closing share price Monday of Y90,000. Sumitomo Corp. shares dropped 3.3%.

Deutsche Securities said the tender offer could prompt KDDI to sell a portion of its stake in Jupiter as KDDI has little reason to fight Sumitomo to become the leading shareholder.

Steelmakers were propping up the Korean market, supported by hopes for increased demand after the long new year holidays, said Kwak Joong-bo at Hana Daetoo Securities.

Posco rose 1.3%, and Hyundai Steel was up 2.1%. Technology firms were higher following Friday's weakness, with Hynix up 0.2% and Samsung Electronics up 0.4%.

New Zealand shares were supported by casino operator Sky City, which advanced 2.9% after reporting a strong first half result and reiterating its fiscal year guidance. The company's profit rose nearly 30% to NZ$71.0 million. Blue chips such as Fletcher Building also rose, advancing 0.8%, and Telecom tacked on 0.9%.

In Australia, the minutes of the Reserve Bank of Australia's February meeting showed the decision to leave rates on hold at 3.75% was "finely balanced" and a resumption of hikes is likely if the economy continues to improve as expected. Despite the unexpected decision to pause in February, the minutes suggest more fine-tuning of policy is likely, and only the timing of the next hike remains unclear.

The Australian dollar was mostly steady, and ANZ FX Strategist Amber Rabinov said the currency is likely to draw few cues from the minutes as they were in line with what RBA Governor Glenn Stevens has already spelled out.

Foreign exchange majors were largely quiet, but the euro remained under some selling pressure as traders awaited the outcome of the meeting of EU finance ministers.

The euro was fetching $1.3597 against the dollar, down from $1.3613 late in London trade, and was at Y122.37 against the yen, from Y122.46. The dollar was at Y89.95 from 89.99.

The EU looks like it "doesn't want to make a decision at this point, although this was to a certain extent expected," said Gaitame.com chief analyst Daisaku Ueno. "Uncertainty over Greece's debt issue may continue to fuel risk-aversion," and weigh on the euro, Ueno said.

Japanese government bond futures were lower with the lead March contract at 139.56 from 139.61 Monday. Traders say the five year tender later in the day could attract strong demand, and provide some support to the JGBs.

Front-month Nymex crude oil futures at $74.27 a barrel on Globex, down 14 cents from late Monday in London.

Intraday Data provided by SIX Financial Information and subject to terms of use.
Historical and current end-of-day data provided by SIX Financial Information. Intraday data
delayed per exchange requirements. S&P/Dow Jones Indices (SM) from Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
All quotes are in local exchange time. Real time last sale data provided by NASDAQ. More
information on NASDAQ traded symbols and their current financial status. Intraday
data delayed 15 minutes for Nasdaq, and 20 minutes for other exchanges. S&P/Dow Jones Indices (SM)
from Dow Jones & Company, Inc. SEHK intraday data is provided by SIX Financial Information and is
at least 60-minutes delayed. All quotes are in local exchange time.