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Hong Kong - Tech firms rallied in Asian trade on Tuesday as investors cheered Warren Buffett's billion-dollar stake in Apple, while energy stocks tracked further gains on oil prices.
After last week's sell-off, US investors provided a blistering lead on Monday, pumped up by news of Buffett's giant stake in the iPhone maker.
Apple, which has tumbled since it last month reported its first fall in sales of the popular smartphones, rallied 3.7 on the announcement.
And Asian suppliers to the firm followed suit, with Tokyo-listed Alps Electric and Japan Display enjoying healthy gains. LG Display in Seoul put on one percent and Hon Hai in Taipei added 0.2%.
Stock markets in the region were also broadly higher.
Tokyo added 0.9% by the break, a day after rising 0.3% on the back of a report that the government was considering delaying next year's planned sales tax hike.
Among other markets Hong Kong was down 0.1%, Sydney gained 0.5% and Singapore put on 0.8 percent. Shanghai dipped 0.2%.
Energy firms were among the big gainers as oil prices pushed higher still, a day after closing at six-month highs in reaction to a Goldman Sachs report saying the petroleum market was in a short-term supply deficit.
On Tuesday West Texas Intermediate was up 0.9% at $48.16 and Brent put on 0.5% to $49.21.
"Markets seem to be in a relatively sweet spot with a steadily stronger US dollar and resilient commodities prices," Angus Nicholson, a markets analyst at IG in Melbourne, said by e-mail.
"Many investors have been predicting a pullback in markets, but despite all the negativity, markets have continued to grind higher."
Australia's Woodside Petroleum soared 2.3% and mining giant BHP Billiton added 2.4%. In Hong Kong CNOOC was 2.6% higher and PetroChina 2.5% up.
The optimistic tone filtered through to forex markets, where the dollar was holding around ¥109, well up from the 18-month lows around ¥105.50 touched two weeks ago.
But the dollar dipped against higher-yielding, or riskier, emerging market currencies.
The Australian dollar rose 0.8%, South Korea's won gained 0.6% and the Indonesian rupiah was up 0.2%. The oil-reliant Malaysian ringgit edged up 0.3% and the Thai baht edged 0.1% higher.
