Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading up in the early deals on Wednesday in holiday-thinned trading as investors took their lead from Wall Street's latest advance into record territory. Meanwhile, Japan’s Nikkei share average rose to two-year highs, supported by an upbeat outlook for the global economy, while Japan Display rallied on a report that it had developed methods to mass-produce OLED panels at a low cost. Among the other Asian markets, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Malaysia are also higher. Bucking the trend, Singapore is lower. The markets in South Korea and China remain closed all week for the Harvest Festival and National Day, respectively. Taiwan is also closed for the Med-Autumn Festival.
Nikkei 225 gained 32.67 points or 0.16% to 20,646.74, Hang Seng rose 213.11 points or 0.76% to 28,386.32, Jakarta Composite added 21.94 points or 0.37% to 5,961.39, and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was up by 1.07 points or 0.06% to 1,760.74.
On the flip side, Straits Times was down by 9.02 points or 0.28% to 3,237.06.