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Hong Kong - Asian shares rallied on Tuesday, taking their lead from a second straight advance on Wall Street, while investors await a string of market-moving news and data over the next few days.
The gains add to Monday's positive performance and provided support to the dollar, which took a hit last week.
Tokyo rose 0.78% by lunch, Sydney was 0.10% higher, Hong Kong added 0.45%, Shanghai was flat and Seoul put on 0.78%.
New York's three main indices ended higher on Monday thanks to a better-than-forecast earnings from banking titan Citigroup, which was described by Wall Street rival Bank of America Merrill Lynch as "encouraging for large peers that report earnings this week".
The Dow rose 0.66%, the S&P 500 advanced 0.48% and the Nasdaq put on 0.56%.
Investors are now keeping an eye on the Bank of Japan's policy decision. While board members are expected to maintain the status quo, economists will be poring over governor Haruhiko Kuroda's post meeting comments for an idea of future direction.
Later on Tuesday US Federal Reserve chief Yellen will kick off two days of congressional testimony, which traders hope will see her provide more detail on the bank's time-frame for raising interest rates.
Also in sight is a US retail sales report for June and earnings from some major US companies, including JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs.
However, the main focus this week in Asia is on China's second-quarter gross domestic product growth figures, which are due on Wednesday.
On currency markets the buoyant sentiment provided support to the dollar, which edged up as investors grew more confident in risk.
In early trade the greenback was changing hands at ¥101.60 against ¥101.54 in New York on Monday and well up from the ¥101.25 seen at the end of last week.
The euro bought $1.3621 and ¥138.40 against $1.3619 and ¥138.29 in US trade.
Oil prices were mixed. US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for August delivery rose 1 cent to $100.92 while Brent crude eased 15c to $106.83.
Gold, a popular asset in times of crises, also dipped. It fetched $1 307.25 an ounce at 02:50 GMT compared with $1 321.37 late on Monday.
