Current Market Update

Here are the latest trading levels for Asia's major stock markets: 

Tokyo (Nikkei Average NIK, -0.19% ) down 0.1% 

 Hong Kong (Hang Seng Index HSI, +0.02% ) flat (at break) 

 Shanghai (Shanghai Composite Index SHCOMP, -0.92% ) down 0.9% (at break) 

 Sydney (S&P/ASX 200 XJO, -0.53% ) down 0.7% 

 Seoul (Kospi SEU, +0.09% ) up 0.1% 

 Mumbai (Sensex 1, +0.03% ) up 0.1% 

 Taipei (Taiex Y9999, -0.09% ) down 0.2%

Asian Market Update

Asian equities stuttered in early trade on Tuesday after healthy gains in the previous session attracted profit-takers, offsetting a strong lead from Wall Street.

Shanghai lost 1.03 per cent after rallying Monday in response to the Chinese central bank's weekend interest rate cut, while Hong Kong pared an initial advance to sit marginally lower.

Tokyo eased 0.21 per cent and Seoul was flat, while Sydney edged up 0.12 per cent ahead of a closely watched interest rate decision by Australia's central bank later in the day.

KLSE Malaysia Opening Market Update

MALAYSIA share prices opened higher on Tuesday with the FTSE Bursa Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Composite Index up 3.07 points to 1820.20.

Volume was 65.32 million lots worth RM36.35 million.

Gainers outnumbered losers 123 to 55.

U.S. stocks end lower, but manage solid monthly gains

U.S. stocks ended February with a whimper and a roar. The main indexes finished the week roughly where they started it, but still booked hefty monthly gains.

The S&P 500 SPX, -0.30%  ended 6.25 points, or 0.3%, lower at 2,104.73, and booked a 0.3% loss over the week. The benchmark index advanced 5.5% over the past month, however, for the best monthly gain since October 2011.

U.S. dollar rings up modest February gain

The U.S. dollar index posted a monthly gain after spending much of February in consolidation mode as investors await further signals on the timing of the Federal Reserve’s next interest-rate increase move.
The euro EURUSD, -0.02%  traded at $1.1197, little changed from its level in late North American trade on Thursday.

The dollar was at ¥119.63 compared with USDJPY, +0.18%  ¥119.49 late Thursday in New York.

The lira USDTRY, +0.12% traded at a rate of 2.5087 per dollar in recent action and traded at 2.5248 per dollar in earlier action, breaching the previous all-time low set on Feb. 11, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The WSJ Dollar Index BUXX, +0.04% a measure of the dollar against a basket of major currencies, was down 0.03 point at 85.89.