Japan's Nikkei outperforms to reach 5-year high

LONDON Japanese stocks outperformed all others Tuesday as traders in the country returned from a public holiday in buoyant mood, sending the Nikkei index above 14,000 for the first time in nearly five years.

The Nikkei surged 3.6 percent to 14,180.24 on its first day of trading following the Golden Week holiday -- that's the first time the Nikkei has breached the 14,000 mark since June 2008.

Japanese stocks have been marked up heavily this year after the Bank of Japan announced a new aggressive monetary policy to get the country out of its near two-decade stagnation. One repercussion of the plan to pump huge amounts of yen into the Japanese economy has been to sharply weaken the currency. A lower yen potentially boosts economic growth by making the country's exports cheaper in international markets.

Elsewhere, investors remained largely positive amid a dearth of scheduled economic and corporate news, as they continued to draw encouragement from Friday's better than anticipated U.S. payrolls figures. The data often set the market tone for a week or two after their release.

In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares as up 0.3 percent at 6,540 while Germany's DAX rose 0.6 percent to 8,164. The CAC-40 in France was 0.4 percent higher at 3,921.

Wall Street was poised for a steady opening, with both Dow futures and the broader S&P 500 futures up 0.1 percent. Both indexes have touched record highs in recent days.

"Wall Street may be eyeing a relatively unchanged start to Tuesday, but there's no denying the current levels remain bullish and the fact the S&P is holding above 1,600 is certainly worthy of note," said Fawad Razaqzada, market strategist at GFT Markets.

The dollar was also fairly steady after gaining in the wake of the payrolls data. The euro was flat at $1.3075 while the dollar was 0.2 percent lower at 99.19 yen.

Earlier in Asia, Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.6 percent to 23,047.09, while South Korea's Kospi fell 0.4 percent to 1,954.49. Mainland Chinese shares were higher. The Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.2 percent to 2,235.58 and the smaller Shenzhen Composite Index added 0.1 percent to 955.33.

Australia was in focus after the Reserve Bank of Australia lowered its official interest rate by a quarter percentage point to 2.75 percent amid some signs the economy is coming off the boil as the Australian dollar rises. Following the reduction, the Aussie dollar fell 0.9 percent to $1.0169. However, the S&P/ASX 200 stock index fell 0.2 percent to 5,143.70.

Oil prices drifted lower after a strong run, with the benchmark New York rate down 63 cents at $95.53 a barrel.