Asia trades with little gains on Wall Street closed higher overnight

Asian markets began Tuesday with small gains after Wall Street closed higher overnight, with an upbeat US housing index reading offsetting a much weaker-than-expected manufacturing survey. US data was mixed overnight, however, markets managed to book gains, helping Asian stocks push higher in the early hours of trade on Tuesday.

New home prices in China fell 3.7% year-on-year last month, according to data from Beijing on Tuesday, after slumping 4.9% a month earlier. China's property market has been in a weak state for several years' now as excess supply and waning demand has hampered the market.

The US housing index rose from 60 to 61 last month, where an index reading above 50 is favourable as it signals a better outlook for home sales. Housing starts are expected to rise by 1.2 million in July, data due to be released tonight in the US should show, compared with 1.17 million in June. The Empire State Manufacturing Index plunged to -14.9 in August from 3.9 in July, where a reading above zero is favourable.

The People's Bank of China (PBoC) set the USD/CNY reference rate at 6.3966 on Tuesday, little changed from Monday's 6.3969, and the bank said it would inject 120 billion Yuan into the money system via reverse repurchases.

Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 index crept 0.08% higher to 20,637.15 points within the first hour of trade, while Tokyo's broader Topix gauge also gained 0.08%, and was trading at 1,674.28 points.

Hong Kong's benchmark Hang Seng index advanced 0.29% to 23,882.72 points just a few minutes after trade began, and mainland China's benchmark Shanghai Composite grew 0.17% to 4,000.57 points at the same time.

Korea's benchmark Kospi index rose 0.17% to 1,971.56 points on Tuesday morning in Seoul.

The benchmark Australian S&P/ASX 200 index climbed 0.11% to 5,373.60 points in Sydney.

New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index rose 0.15% to 5,736.07 points.

The Indian market has opened higher aided by global support. The Sensex is up 100.92 points or 0.4 percent at 27979.19 and the Nifty is up 28.55 points or 0.4 percent at 8505.85.