BREAKING: Vaccine News Prompts Asian Share Rally but Signs of Weakness Are Emerging

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Asian share markets mostly rose on Tuesday as global investors applauded successful trial data for a coronavirus vaccine, although expected delays to any mass roll-out took the gloss off early gains.

European futures trading during the Asian session were indicating a weaker open of at least 1.2%, while U.S. futures showed a potential fall of at least 0.5% after Monday’s steep market gains.

The positive tone in Asian equities came after Pfizer Inc said its COVID-19 vaccine, developed with German partner BioNTech SE, was more than 90% effective in preventing infection, marking the first successful results from a large-scale clinical trial.

Major Asian markets soared on the vaccine news before weakening later in the session. Japan's Nikkei 225 ended up nearly 0.3% after being 1.1% higher in early trading, touching a 29-year high.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 closed 0.66% higher after trading up as much as 1.6%, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was at 0.77% in the afternoon after rising 1% in early trade. Singapore's Straits Times gained 2.94% to take the index to its highest point since June.

Despite the optimistic tone across the region, there was some weakness in China, with the CSI300 Index slipping 0.17%.