Asian shares track U.S., European gains, dollar hovers near seven-week high

By Nichola Saminather

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Asian shares climbed on Tuesday, following positive leads from Europe and the U.S. as oil's longest stretch of daily price gains in over five years lifted energy shares and investor rotation out of technology into financials continued.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan <.MIAPJ0000PUS> added 0.2 percent while Japan's Nikkei <.N225> jumped 0.5 percent, thanks to a weaker yen.

Australian shares <.AXJO> advanced 1.4 percent, while South Korea's KOSPI <.KS11> was little changed

Overnight on Wall Street, the S&P 500 index <.SPX> and the Dow Jones Industrial Average <.DJI> posted gains of 0.2 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively, led by financials and energy shares. The Nasdaq <.IXIC> lost 0.5 percent, as the rotation away from technology names continued.

 

U.S. markets are closed on Tuesday.

European markets posted even stronger gains, with the FTSEurofirst 300 jumping as much as 1.2 percent following steep losses last week.

In currency markets, the dollar stood at 113.36 yen > early on Tuesday, within a hair of a seven-week high of 113.47 touched on Monday.

The dollar jumped after a private index of June domestic manufacturing activity rose more than expected while other data showed government outlays on construction projects in May at their highest in more than four years.

That sent two-year U.S. Treasury yields > surging to their highest level since November 2008.

"Expectations towards the Federal Reserve hiking interest rates later this year had perhaps sunk too low," said Shin Kadota, a senior strategist at Barclays in Tokyo. "We are now seeing such lowered expectations being reversed a little."

The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of trade-weighted peers, slipped about 0.1 percent to 96.122 early on Tuesday, but held on to most of Monday's 0.6 percent gain.

The euro > rose 0.1 percent to $1.1373 on Tuesday.

Sterling also gained 0.1 percent to $1.2944 >, but failed to make up most of Monday's 0.7 percent loss after poorer-than-expected data from Britain's manufacturing sector.

Crude futures rose for a ninth straight session on Tuesday, their longest run of gains since February 2012, after data showed slowing U.S. output.

U.S. crude was fractionally higher at $47.07 a barrel, adding to Monday's 2.2 percent rise.

Global benchmark Brent was slightly lower at $49.63 early on Tuesday. On Monday, it closed up 3.7 percent, its biggest one-day gain since December 2016.

Gold inched up from its lowest level in more than seven weeks hit on Monday on the dollar's strength. Spot gold > was up 0.25 percent at $1,233.36 an ounce on Tuesday.

(Reporting by Nichola Saminather; Additional reporting by Shinichi Saoshiro; Editing by Sam Holmes)