Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading up in the early deals on Thursday, following the record gains overnight on Wall Street and on expectations that the European Central Bank will extend its asset purchase program at its monetary policy meeting later in the day. The ECB is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged for a sixth straight time and also extend its asset purchase program beyond March of 2017 amid the recent political turmoil in Europe following the referendum in Italy. Risk appetites got an added boost when China reported upbeat trade figures with exports and imports both beating forecasts. Meanwhile, Japan's Nikkei share average rose fuelled by a further rise on Wall Street, but a stronger yen kept gains in check. Among the other Asian markets, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia and Taiwan are also in positive territory. Bucking the trend, Shanghai is lower.
Nikkei 225 added 188.53 points or 1.02% to 18,685.22, Hang Seng gained 147.46 points or 0.65% to 22,948.38, Taiwan Weighted rose 103.40 points or 1.12% to 9,367.29, Straits Times jumped 13.94 points or 0.47% to 2,973.78, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 5.23 points or 0.32% to 1,637.70, KOSPI Index surged 24.18 points or 1.21% to 2,016.07, and Jakarta Composite was up by 13.88 points or 0.26% to 5,279.25.
On the flip side, Shanghai Composite was down by 1.71 points or 0.05% to 3,220.53.