All the Asian equity benchmarks barring Shanghai Composite are trading higher in the early deals on Wednesday, after reports showing manufacturing expansion in the world’s two biggest economies sent US equity gauges to records. However, with a section of investors treading cautiously at higher levels, choosing to wait for more data, gains are just modest in some of the markets in the region. On the regional front, the Japanese stock market surged higher, with a weaker yen and the overnight gains on Wall Street lifting sentiment. On the economic front, the monetary base in Japan surged 42.6 percent on year in June to 233.246 trillion yen, the Bank of Japan said on Wednesday. That follows the 45.6 percent spike in May. Among other markets in the Asia-Pacific region, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan are notably higher. Indonesia and Malaysia are up marginally, while Shanghai is trading weak.
Nikkei 225 soared 66.54 points or 0.43% to 15,392.74, Hang Seng increased by 223.92 points or 0.97% to 23,414.64, KOSPI Index gained 13.07 points or 0.65% to 2,012.07, Straits Times Index strengthened by 15.52 points or 0.48% to 3,258.16, Jakarta Composite added 3.60 points or 0.07% to 4,888.42, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI rose by 2.46 points or 0.13% to 1,881.58 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 11.80 points or 0.12% to 9,453.72.
On the flip side, Shanghai Composite was down by 4.72 points or 0.23% to 2,045.66.