Asian stock markets followed Wall Street higher on Tuesday, at least temporarily shaking off jitters about China's virus outbreak. Benchmarks in Hong Kong and South Korea rose more than 1%, rebounding from big declines Monday, and Shanghai also advanced. Tokyo fell for a second day. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index surged 1.3% to 27,601.30 while the Kospi in Seoul rose 1.3% to 2,230.71. The Shanghai Composite Index added 0.5% to 2,906.03. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 lost 0.6% to 23,685.98 while the S&P-ASX 200 in Australia gained 0.7% to 7,062.90. New Zealand, Singapore and Indonesia also advanced, AP reported. Benchmark U.S. crude gained 57 cents to $50.14 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract lost 75 cents on Monday to settle at $49.57. Brent crude oil, the international standard, rose 73 cents to $54.00. It dropped $1.20 the previous session to close at $53.27. The dollar advanced to 109.87 yen from Monday's 109.70 yen. The euro was unchanged at $1.0914.
