Asian equity benchmarks are trading up in the early deals on Thursday, shrugging off the weak cues overnight from Wall Street, as weak US economic data boosted expectations that the Federal Reserve will hold off on raising interest rates this year. Meanwhile, the Japanese stocks rose after soft economic data and weakness on Wall Street bolstered views that the US Federal Reserve will keep putting off hiking interest rates and investors bought buy defensive shares.
Nikkei 225 gained 257.79 points or 1.44% to 18,148.79, Hang Seng strengthen 485.73 points or 2.16% to 22,925.64, KOSPI Index jumped 23.75 points or 1.18% to 2,033.30, Shanghai Composite added 45.80 points or 1.40% to 3,308.24, Straits Times increased 29.12 points or 0.98% to 3,013.04, Jakarta Composite surged 46.60 points or 1.04% to 4,529.67, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI spurt 5.61 points or 0.33% to 1,716.75, and Taiwan Weighted was up by 96.46 points or 1.13% to 8,618.97.