All the Asian equity benchmarks barring Jakarta Composite are trading higher in the early deals on tracking cues from Wall Street where the major averages advanced overnight on some upbeat US economic data and the ECB President Mario Draghi's comments that hinted at more stimulus to spur euro zone economic growth. However, buying interest is somewhat subdued in most of the markets in the region, with investors looking ahead to the US monthly non-farm payrolls data, due today. On the regional front, the Japanese stock market is trading higher after US jobless claims dropped and the yen weakened. Chinese Shanghai Composite improved before the release of trade data tomorrow. Among other markets in the Asia-Pacific region, Shanghai and Hong Kong are trading notably higher. Taiwan, South Korea, Malaysia and Singapore are up marginally, while Indonesia is trading weak.
Nikkei 225 soared 71.83 points or 0.43% to 16,864.31, Hang Seng improved 296.02 points or 1.25% to 23,998.06, KOSPI Index surged by 2.05 points or 0.11% to 1,938.53, Straits Times rose 4.58 points or 0.14% to 3,295.54, Shanghai Composite climbed 14.43 points or 0.59% to 2,440.29, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI added 2.73 points or 0.15% to 1,834.71 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 27.62 points or 0.31% to 8,918.64.
On the flip side, Jakarta Composite was down by 16.60 points or 0.33% to 5,017.63.