Asia stocks mostly up on Greece, Fed hike talk lifts dollar

Most Asian markets climbed Tuesday after Greece and its creditors agreed a debt deal to keep it in the eurozone, while the dollar advanced as attention shifted back to when the Federal Reserve will hike interest rates.

But Shanghai and Hong Kong retreated after a three day rally, although a little more confidence has returned since China moved to prevent a crash last week following a near month-long pummelling.

Tokyo climbed 1.50 percent as the yen retreated against a resurgent dollar, while Sydney added 1.66 percent and Singapore put on 0.50 percent. Taipei added 0.48 percent and Wellington put on 0.39 percent.

Shanghai was down 0.40 percent following a 13 percent advance in the past three days, while Hong Kong dipped 0.50 percent after climbing more than seven percent from Thursday.

Seoul was 0.33 percent lower.

Global markets rallied Monday after Greece finally agreed to an austerity package to unlock billions of euros of much needed cash and, crucially, keep it from plunging out of the eurozone. The announcement, after 17 hours of gruelling talks at an emergency summit, ended a six-month crisis that has kept traders on edge.
On Wall Street the Dow jumped 1.22 percent, the S&P 500 added 1.11 percent and Nasdaq gained 1.48 percent.

And European equities advanced. France's CAC 40 climbed 1.94 percent and Germany's DAX 30 put on 1.49 percent, while Milan rose 1.00 percent and Madrid gained 1.70 percent.

With the crisis out of the way for now, investors turned their focus back to the Fed's plans for raising interest rates, pushing the dollar up against the yen and the euro.

"As long as this deal holds, a potential roadblock to Fed policy normalisation has been removed with the liftoff from later this year still on track," Mark Smith, a senior economist in Auckland at ANZ Bank New Zealand, wrote in a client note, according to Bloomberg News.

With fed chief Janet Yellen previously saying she expects a rise by the end of this year and a US recovery picking up, dealers are piling back into the dollar. The unit rose to 123.54 yen in Tokyo Tuesday from 123.45 yen in New York. The euro also eased to $1.0986 from $1.1004.

The single European currency was, however, up at 135.90 yen against 135.84 yen in US trade.

- Resumed trade in China -
Markets will be watching a slew of US data this week for a better handle on what the Fed will do, including on industrial output, housing starts, inflation and consumer sentiment.

In China, hundreds of firms were expected to resume trading again Tuesday, adding to the more than 400 that returned Monday, after they were suspended over the past few weeks to prevent a market meltdown.

Authorities intervened after the Shanghai index plunged 30 percent in three weeks, wiping trillions of dollars from market capitalisations, spreading contagion in regional markets and raising fears over the potential impact to the real economy.

Market watchers are awaiting the release of growth data Wednesday to see if the world's number two economy has picked up after suffering a continuous slowdown for more than a year.

On oil markets, US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for delivery in August fell 58 cents to $51.62 and Brent crude for August eased 47 cents to $57.38 a barrel in morning Asian trade.

Gold fetched $1,156.05 compared with $1,156.64 late Monday.