Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading higher in early deals on Wednesday, following overnight gains on Wall Street on the back of some encouraging economic and decent earnings reports. Sentiments also remained up-beat after Turkey amazed investors with a huge hike in interest rates, stirring hopes the drastic action would short-circuit a vicious cycle of selling in emerging markets and revive risk appetite generally. Japanese Nikkei remained the biggest gainer, up by over two percent. Among other markets in the Asia-Pacific region, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Indonesia, Malaysia and South Korea are all trading notably higher, while Singapore is trading weak.
Shanghai Composite rose 6.41 points or 0.31% to 2,044.93, Hang Seng strengthened 230.56 points or 1.05% to 22,191.20, Jakarta Composite increased 70.87 points or 1.63% to 4,412.52, KLSE Composite added 12.11 points or 0.68% to 1,793.36, Nikkei 225 surged 310.83 points or 2.07% to 15,290.99 and Seoul Composite was up by 23.09 points or 1.20% to 1,940.02.
On the flip side, Straits Times declined 22.10 points or 0.72% to 3,040.31.
Taiwan Weighted remained closed for the trade today.