Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading higher on Thursday as a sharp rebound on Wall Street and gains in battered Chinese shares eased fears of a deep and protracted global market rout, while the dollar rallied as risk aversion eased. The Japanese market edged higher after a strong rebound on Wall Street eased investors' fears of a prolonged global market rout. Moreover, expectations that the US Federal Reserve might not raise interest rates next month too fuelled the uptrend in the regional markets.
Nikkei 225 gained 249.17 points or 1.36% to 18,626.00, Hang Seng rose 533.09 points or 2.53% to 21,613.48, Jakarta Composite surged 137.49 points or 3.24% to 4,375.23, Straits Times added 58.94 points or 2.05% to 2,931.94, Taiwan Weighted jumped 103.51 points or 1.34% to 7,819.10, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 16.33 points or 1.03% to 1,596.70, KOSPI Index spurt 11.02 points or 0.58% to 1,905.11 and Shanghai Composite was up by 45.28 points or 1.55% to 2,972.57.