Australian stocks rally, rest of Asia trade mixed

The Australian traders returned to markets with a bang, after having enjoyed Christmas and Booking Day holiday season, triggering a fresh rally on the region’s index. While rest of Asian traded little changed, although sentiment remained buoyed somewhat, in wake of yesterday’s rally in oil prices and a positive close on the Wall Street overnight.

The Japanese equities failed to benefit from renewed sell-off in the yen versus its American counterpart, as mixed Japanese industrial production and retail sales data dented investors’ sentiment. The cautious tone seen on the Japanese indices is largely on the back of a more-than 20% slump in the shares of Toshiba, in response to poor corporate news.

The company said on Tuesday it may have to book several billion dollars in one-off charges related to a US nuclear power plant construction company acquisition.

Meanwhile, the Japanese 225 index trades +0.07% at 19,415. The Australian benchmark, ASX 200 index rallies +1.03% to 5,684 points. Mainland Chinese markets were nearly flat, with the Shanghai composite down -0.09% while the Shenzhen composite dropped -0.30%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down -0.12%.