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Hong Kong - Asian markets were mixed on Tuesday following a soft lead from Wall Street, with Tokyo tacking on another huge set of gains after last week's surprise monetary easing by the Bank of Japan.
The dollar eased a touch after racing above ¥114 for the first time in seven years, while the euro edged higher after hitting two-year lows against the dollar in US trade.
Tokyo surged 4.01% by the break, Hong Kong added 0.15%, Shanghai shed 0.22% and Seoul lost 0.10%. Sydney was 0.13% higher.
Japanese traders returned from a long weekend for the first time since Friday's central bank announcement that it would add up to ¥20trn ($176bn) to its asset-buying scheme in a bid to kick-start the economy and avert a recession. That sent the Nikkei almost 5% higher and the yen plunging against the dollar.
On Tuesday Tokyo's markets resumed their buying spree.
"US markets' positive reaction (Friday) to the BoJ's announcement adds all the more fervour to suddenly bullish Japan stock enthusiasm," Hiroichi Nishi, general manager of equities at SMBC Nikko Securities, told Dow Jones Newswires.
The prospect of even more yen being pumped into the market sent it tumbling Friday, and this week extended those losses.
In early trade Tuesday the dollar sat at ¥113.56. In New York it ended at ¥113.99 after breaking ¥114 for the first time since late 2007.
The weaker yen boosted exporters, among them Sony, which surged 10.11% and Panasonic, which jumped 9.04%.
On other forex trade the euro was at $1.2497, against $1.2484 in New York, where at one point it sank to $1.2449 in response to another soft batch of eurozone manufacturing data.
The single currency was at ¥142.05 against ¥142.31, although it was well up from the ¥140 level before the BoJ announcement.
On Wall Street Monday the three main indices ended mixed after a rise in October manufacturing activity was offset by profit-taking and weaker-than-expected construction spending figures.
The Dow eased 0.14%, the S&P 500 was flat and the Nasdaq edged up 0.18%.
Oil prices extended losses following reports that Saudi Arabia was slashing its export prices for the US market while hiking them for Asia.
US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for December delivery fell 47 cents to $78.31 while Brent crude for December was down 49c to $84.29.
The price of gold fell to $1 166.25 an ounce from $1 172.85 late on Monday.
