Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading up in the early deals on Wednesday, following the positive cues from Wall Street, with gains led by technology stocks after Apple reported better-than-expected financial results for the third quarter overnight. Investors also digested mostly upbeat earnings results from major Asian companies. Meanwhile, Japan's Nikkei share average posted modest gains, supported by strong earnings reports from local companies and by a rally in Apple suppliers after it reported robust profits. Among the other Asian markets, South Korea, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia and Taiwan are also higher. Bucking the trend, Singapore is in negative territory.
Nikkei 225 rose 111.96 points or 0.56% to 20,097.75, Hang Seng added 127.16 points or 0.46% to 27,667.39, Taiwan Weighted gained 73.3 points or 0.7% to 10,510.59, KOSPI Index increased 7.1 points or 0.29% to 2,430.06, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI spurt 4.12 points or 0.23% to 1,769.25, Jakarta Composite strengthen 2.62 points or 0.05% to 5,807.82, and Shanghai Composite was up by 1.77 points or 0.05% to 3,294.41.
On the flip side, Straits Times was down by 2.64 points or 0.08% to 3,335.56.