Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading up in the early deals on Thursday following the positive lead overnight from Wall Street, after the Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged and hinted at a rate hike before the end of the year. Besides, Japanese central banks leaving interest rates unchanged also fuelled the uptrend. China and Hong Kong stocks rose sharply as the Federal Reserve's decision to keep interest rates unchanged eased investors’ anxiety. Among the other Asian markets, Hong Kong and Indonesia, Shanghai, South Korea, Singapore, New Zealand and Malaysia are also higher. Bucking the trend, Taiwan is edging lower. The Japanese market is closed for the Autumnal Equinox holiday.
Hang Seng added 270.19 points or 1.14% to 23,940.09, Shanghai Composite surged 22.74 points or 0.75% to 3,048.61, Jakarta Composite increased 50.40 points or 0.94% to 5,392.99, KOSPI Index jumped 21.77 points or 1.07% to 2,057.76, Straits Times rose 5.33 points or 0.19% to 2,856.07, and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was up by 5.52 points or 0.33% to 1,664.25.
On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted was down by 8.24 points or 0.09% to 9,220.26.