Investing.com — Most Asian stocks rose on Tuesday as big technology stocks recovered from a recent sell-off, while Chinese markets slumped as sentiment toward the country showed little improvement.
Regional markets tracked Wall Street’s strong overnight trading, mainly buoyed by a rebound in big tech stocks. Attention was focused on quarterly earnings reports from tech giants Alphabet (NASDAQ:) and Tesla (NASDAQ:) due to be released later in the day.
U.S. stock index futures fell in Asian markets as sentiment remained weak due to uncertainty surrounding the U.S. presidential election.
Technology supports Asian stocks, but mostly
Japan’s stock index rose 0.2%, while the broader Japanese stock market rose 0.5%, led by strength in technology stocks. In particular, regional semiconductor manufacturers followed a rebound in artificial intelligence giant NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:).
Shares of Taiwan’s TSMC (TW:) (NYSE:), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, rose 2.7% after falling about 7% over the past five trading days. The company’s shares found little support from strong second-quarter results.
South Korea’s inflation data showed that manufacturing inflation rose slightly in June.
But while tech-heavy stock indexes found some relief on Tuesday, they are still falling sharply over the past week as hopes of interest rate cuts prompted investors to shift money to sectors that are likely to benefit from an economic recovery.
Asian stocks also fell as risk appetite weakened amid growing uncertainty over the US presidential election after President Joe Biden withdrew from the race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic presidential candidate.
Republican nominee Donald Trump said it would be easier to beat Harris, who was seen as outperforming Biden and Harris in the polls before Biden withdrew, according to CBS and HarrisX data.
The rotation into cyclical sectors continued on Tuesday, with Australia up 0.7 percent on gains in big banks and mining stocks.
Indian stock index futures hinted at a slightly positive start as a weaker rupee and optimism about the Indian economy helped keep the index and the index near record highs.
The Indian government is also expected to announce policies later in the day, which could cause some volatility in the domestic market.
Chinese stocks slump amid continuing economic uncertainty and concerns over President Trump
China’s indexes fell 0.8% and 0.5%, respectively, while the tech-heavy index lost 0.3%.
Sentiment towards China has shown little sign of improvement despite the People’s Bank of China’s unexpected interest rate cut on Monday, with analysts saying the cut was too small to have a major impact.
The Third Plenary Session of the Chinese Communist Party was a major disappointment for investors as Beijing offered few details about plans for further stimulus.
But the main factor weighing on the Chinese market was speculation about a Trump presidency, which has maintained a largely tough stance on China and could impose further trade restrictions, angering Beijing.
