Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading up in the early deals on Thursday, due to the overnight cues from Wall Street where stocks closed sharply higher in response to the US Federal Reserve's announcement-which traders viewed as dovish regarding the outlook for interest rates. Further, the Fed said a rate hike in April is unlikely and although Fed Chair Janet Yellen said a June rate hike cannot be ruled out, a slight downgrade in the economic outlook means that tightening may pushed out until the second half of the year. Bucking the trend, the Japanese market is in negative territory, as investors took profits on recent gains such as financial shares, which could suffer from a fall in Japanese bond yields. Among the other markets in the Asia-Pacific region, Shanghai, South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Taiwan are higher with modest gains.
Hang Seng jumped 316.65 points or 1.31% to 24,436.73, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI gained 9.31 points or 0.52% to 1,806.88, KOSPI Index rose 8.66 points or 0.43% to 2,037.11, Shanghai Composite surged by 9.69 points or 0.27% to 3,586.99, Taiwan Weighted strengthen 79.73 points or 0.83% to 9,733.16, Jakarta Composite added 35.24 points or 0.65% to 5,448.39 and Straits Times was up by 13.98 points or 0.42% to 3,375.73.
On the flip side, Nikkei 225 was down by 109.55 points or 0.56% to 19,434.93.