Asian shares hit a four-month high on Tuesday after comments from Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen and China's official PMI survey showing the manufacturing sector managed to continue expanding in March, Reuters reported. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose by up to 0.4 percent to reach its highest level since early December. European shares are expected to gain, with both Britain's FTSE and France's CAC seen rising 0.3 percent. The Nikkei failed to match other indexes, falling 0.2 percent as the Bank of Japan's tankan survey showed Japanese companies cautious on the economic outlook as a three-percentage-point sales tax hike took effect on Tuesday. Global shares were also supported by Fed chair Janet Yellen reinforcing the need for an "extraordinary" commitment to support the U.S. economy, seemingly tempering expectations of a sooner-than-expected start to the rate-hike cycle. Gold hit a seven-week low of $1,278.34 per ounce, despite Yellen's dovish comments while the yen also slipped to a three-week low against the dollar of 103.44 yen and a nine-month low against the risk-sensitive Australian dollar at 95.75. The euro bounced back against the U.S. dollar to fetch $1.3774 even as softer-than-forecast inflation numbers put more pressure on the European Central Bank to act against the threat of deflation. Crude futures were off three-week highs following news Russia was withdrawing some troops from the Ukrainian border. U.S. crude futures stood at $101.41 per barrel, off Friday's high of $102.24.
