Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading up in the early deals on Thursday following the overnight gains on Wall Street after the Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged and said it will begin to unwind its bloated balance sheet ‘relatively soon’. Policy makers did not offer a specific timeline for further rate hikes, but will probably hold off until December barring an unexpected spike in inflation. Investors also digested strong earnings results from Samsung Electronics and Nintendo Corp. Meanwhile, Japan's Nikkei share average inched up in choppy trade, underpinned by record US closing highs after the Federal Reserve signalled some concern about slow inflation, while Nintendo soared after its profit beat market expectations. Among the other Asian markets, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia and Taiwan are also in positive territory. Bucking the trend, Shanghai is modestly lower.
Nikkei 225 gained 20.54 points or 0.1% to 20,070.70, Taiwan Weighted added 82.41 points or 0.79% to 10,501.52, Hang Seng increased 134.34 points or 0.5% to 27,075.36, Jakarta Composite spurt 17.29 points or 0.3% to 5,817.50, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI rose 4.58 points or 0.26% to 1,770.58, Straits Times strengthen 9.00 points or 0.27% to 3,345.72, and KOSPI Index was up by 2.36 points or 0.1% to 2,436.87.
On the flip side, Shanghai Composite was down by 10.64 points or 0.33% to 3,237.04.