Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading up in the early deals on Wednesday, tracking cues from Wall Street where the mood was quite positive overnight on the back of an upbeat report on U.S. third-quarter GDP. However, buying interest is somewhat subdued in most of the markets in the region ahead of Christmas holidays. Further, the Japanese stock market rallied, catching up with the global markets, coming back after a holiday. Investors were also reacting to yesterday's upbeat U.S. third-quarter GDP data. Among other markets in the Asia-Pacific region, Singapore, Taiwan, Indonesia and South Korea are modestly higher. Hong Kong is up marginally, while Shanghai and Malaysia are trading weak.
Nikkei 225 spurted 202.00 points or 1.15% to 17,837.14, Hang Seng improved by 17.54 points or 0.08% to 23,351.23, KOSPI Index added 6.36 points or 0.33% to 1,945.38, Straits Times strengthened by 10.80 points or 0.32% to 3,343.31, Jakarta Composite jumped 22.22 points or 0.43% to 5,161.29 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 64.28 points or 0.71% to 9,161.99.
On the flip side, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI declined by 1.33 points or 0.08% to 1,747.72 and Shanghai Composite was down by 56.98 points or 1.88% to 2,975.64.