Asia shares extend bounce

Asian shares edged higher on Tuesday tracking rallies in the United States and Europe as investors seemed to put aside geopolitical concerns, at least for the moment. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan added 0.3 percent after jumping 1.5 percent on Monday. Japan Topix rose 0.4 percent, while the Nikkei firmed 0.3 percent.

The better mood came even though NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen warned of a "high probability" that Russia, using the guise of a humanitarian mission, could intervene militarily in Ukraine. Ukraine has also said that, contrary to Russian reports of de-escalating, Russia has massed 45,000 troops in its border.

None of this seemed to faze Wall Street, where the Dow rose 0.10 percent, while the S&P 500 gained 0.28 percent and the Nasdaq 0.70 percent. Shares of Kinder Morgan Inc, the biggest U.S. pipeline company, jumped 9 percent on news it would put all its publicly traded units under one roof in a $70 billion deal. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index jumped 1.3 percent after losing 2 percent last week.

Yet there was enough of a safe-haven bid to keep Treasuries underpinned with yields on U.S. 10-year paper at 2.429 percent, not far from last week's 14-month lows. Major currencies were fenced in narrow ranges, with the U.S. dollar index flat at 81.470 after drifting in a 82 tick-range on Monday, a far cry from Friday's 336 tick-range.

The dollar brought 102.22 yen, off Friday's low of 101.51, while the euro fetched 136.82 yen, still well off a trough of 135.73 plumbed on Friday.

Source: yahoo.com