Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading up in the early deals on Thursday, after a surprise rate cut by South Korea's central bank boosted sentiment, helping offset a weak lead overnight from Wall Street and lower commodity prices while the prospect of higher U.S. interest rates buoyed the dollar. Further, Japan's Nikkei share average rose as investors chased the market higher before the futures settlement. Among the other markets in the Asia-Pacific region, South Korea, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia and Taiwan are in positive territory. Bucking the trend, Singapore is marginally lower.
Nikkei 225 surged 259.66 points or 1.39% to 18,983.18, Hang Seng added 101.62 points or 0.43% to 23,819.59, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI gained 9.59 points or 0.54% to 1,787.75, KOSPI Index rose 6.24 points or 0.32% to 1,987.07, Jakarta Composite jumped 16.02 points or 0.30% to 5,435.59, Taiwan Weighted increased 73.04 points or 0.77% to 9,596.22 and Shanghai Composite was up by 44.55 points or 1.35% to 3,335.45.
On the flip side Straits Times was down by 6.78 points or 0.20% to 3,371.81.