All the Asian equity benchmarks are trading in positive terrain in the morning deals on Wednesday, tracking the overnight cues from Wall Street, where stocks closed higher partly in reaction to a relatively upbeat reading on US manufacturing activity in March. The Japanese stock market rose as weaker yen boosted shares of exporters. On the economic front, the monetary base in Japan spiked 54.8 percent on year in March, standing at 208.592 trillion yen that follows the 55.7 percent jump in February and the 51.9 percent increase in January. China’s Shanghai Composite jumped to the highest level in a week, led by property developers and metal producers, after copper prices climbed on an earthquake in Chile and speculation grew the government will relax housing curbs.
Shanghai Composite increased by 8.54 points or 0.42% to 2,056.00, Hang Seng gained 86.89 points or 0.39% to 22,535.43, Jakarta Composite climbed 6.77 points or 0.14% to 4,880.71, KLSE Composite soared 4.77 points or 0.26% to 1,852.53, Nikkei 225 spurted by 237.50 points or 1.61% to 15,029.49, Straits Times added 3.30 points or 0.10% to 3,201.82, KOSPI Composite strengthened by 4.48 points or 0.22% to 1,996.46 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 17.06 points or 0.19% to 8,890.21.