Chinese stocks lead Asia gains as PBOC announces slew of policy easing measures in rare briefing

Asia-Pacific markets climbed on Tuesday, led by Chinese stocks as Beijing announced a slew of policy easing measures in a rare briefing from central bank governor Pan Gongsheng.

The PBOC will cut the reserve requirement ratio for banks by 50 basis points, although it did not provide a specific timeline. It also announced it would cut to the seven-day reverse repurchase rate from 1.7% to 1.5%.

Other measures also include reducing down payments for second homes, as well as 1 trillion yuan ($141.78 billion) of long-term funds.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index surged 2.18% on its open, while the mainland Chinese CSI 300 was up 1%.

Australia’s central bank will also announce its rate decision on Tuesday, with economists polled by Reuters expecting the RBA to hold rates at 4.35%.

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia said in a note last week that the economic data flow since the last meeting “has either been softer or in line with the RBA’s expectations.” As such, CBA expects a slightly less hawkish statement, but does not see a material shift in language or tone. 

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose marginally ahead of the RBA decision.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 was 1.47% higher, while the Topix gained 1% as Japanese markets returned from a holiday. This marks the first time that the Nikkei has crossed the 38,000 mark since Sept. 3.

South Korea’s Kospi was 0.6% up, while the small-cap Kosdaq rose 0.68%.

Hong Kong Hang Seng index futures were at 18,462, higher than the HSI’s last close of 18,247.11.

Overnight in the U.S., the Nasdaq Composite ticked up 0.14%, also mirroring gains made by the other two major U.S. indexes.

The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average touched new closing highs in Monday’s trading session.

The broad market index added 0.28% to end at 5,718.57, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 61.29 points, or 0.15%, to close at 42,124.65.

—CNBC’s Brian Evans and Alex Harring contributed to this report.