SINGAPORE, Dec 28 (Reuters) - Asian shares mostly rose on
Tuesday, but stocks in Japan and China eased amid concerns
that further Chinese monetary tightening will cool the engine
of world economic growth.
The euro spiked against the dollar, although market
players attributed its strength to technical factors in light
holiday trade, and oil edged up near a 26-month high as a snow
storm in the U.S. northeast underpinned demand expectations.
The timing of China's Christmas Day interest rate rise may
have surprised but the move itself did not, with Chinese
leaders pledged to make fighting inflation a priority in 2011.
World shares mostly fell on Monday in response to the
move, as investors fretted that tighter monetary policy would
moderate the growth that many are relying on to support the
global economic recovery.
On Tuesday, MSCI's broadest index of Asia shares outside
Japan rose 0.2 percent, but Shanghai shares
fell 0.9 percent, after a 2 percent drop the previous
day, and Tokyo's Nikkei shed 0.4 percent.
"Investors locked in profits as Shanghai shares fell in
late trade yesterday," said Kazuhiro Takahashi, general
manager at Daiwa Capital Markets. "They didn't want to buy
further as uncertainty remained for Chinese shares."
With Australian markets closed for a holiday the main
stock gains in Asia were in South Korea, where the main index
rose 0.8 percent, led by a 2.4 percent rise for
Samsung Electronics .
U.S. stocks finished little moved on Monday, with the Dow
Jones industrial average down 0.2 percent but the
Nasdaq Composite 0.1 percent firmer.
EURO JUMPS
The euro rose sharply as bears who had been betting on
further weakness due to worries about the continent's
sovereign debt crisis were forced to abandon their positions.
The beleaguered single currency jumped to around $1.3250
after stop-loss orders were triggered at key chart positions
around $1.32.
"It's a flow-driven market so it's hard to tell how long
this rise in the euro will continue," said a trader at a
European bank.
The euro has been under pressure due to concerns that more
debt-soaked euro zone nations such as Portugal and Spain will
be forced to join Greece and Ireland in needing a bailout to
finance their burgeoning debt.
Broad weakness in the dollar helped commodities, which are
mostly priced in the U.S. currency and so become cheaper for
international investors when it falls.
U.S. copper futures <HGc4> rallied more than half a
percent to a record high of 430.75 cents per lb and Shanghai
copper <SCFc3> rose 0.6 percent. Spot gold rose to almost
$1,390 an ounce.
Oil rose 22 cents, around a quarter of a percent, to
$91.22 a barrel, a blizzards brought knee-deep snow to the
northeastern United States, the world's biggest market for
heating oil.
